The TEA (Total Entrepreneurial Activity) is the percentage of initiatives newly created in the market over the population between 18-64 years old living in Spain. The value of such rate estimated for Spain in 2010, is 4.3%, the lowest recorded by GEM in the eleven years that has been measured in our country, and it means a decrease of 15.7% (0.8 percentage points) compared to 2009.

The TEA is divided into: Nascent Entrepreneurship (up to 3 months of activity), and New Entrepreneurship (between 3 and 42 months of activity). The aforementioned drop in Total Entrepreneurial Activity is mainly explained by the decrease of the New Entrepreneurship, which rose from 2.8% to 2.1% in 2010, while the Nascent Entrepreneurship remains virtually the same level of last year, reaching 2.2% against 2.3% last year. These figures reflect the difficulties that entrepreneurs still have to implement and to maintain the activity of their initiatives.

Main obstacles for entrepreneurship in Spain:

Financing	71,8%
Policies	56,4%
Social Rules	35,9%
Economic Situation	33,3%
Education	20,5%
Entrepreneurship Capacity	17,9%

Distribution of founders activity regarding age group (Year 2010):

Age (18 – 24): 7,9%

Age (25 – 34): 37,0%

Age (35 – 44): 34,3%

Age (45 – 54): 15,4%

Age (55 – 64): 5,4%

Female participation in initiatives that are currently in a entrepreneurial phase in Spain in 2010, represents 36.4% of the total, while the male covers 63.6%.

On the year 2010 in Spain, the rate of potential entrepreneurship is 6.7%, having increased 24% (1,2 percentage points) regarding 2009.

On the other hand, the dropout rate stood at 1.9% of the population aged 18-64 years, which has meant a decrease of 2.96% (0.1 percentage points) over 2009, and therefore, a positive turnaround. The reasons for the most frequently abandonment are: lack of profitability (48.6%), problems in raising finance (17.8%).