Small businesses created more than 44 percent of Texas’ net new jobs between 2004 and 2005, according to a report just issued by the Small Business Administration.

The SBA said small businesses (fewer than 500 workers) represented nearly 99 percent of the state’s employers and 47 percent of private-sector employment.

Minority self-employment increased by about 27 percent between 2000 and 2007, the report says.

The number of Hispanics and blacks is growing, information from the Texas State Data Center at the University of Texas at San Antonio shows.

“Texas will become increasingly diverse with Anglos already less than half of the population and coming to account for no more than one-third of the total population by 2040,” the TSDC says. “On the other hand, Hispanics will come to form a majority of the population by no later than 2035, and by 2040 will make up at least 52.6 percent of the total population.”

The No. 1 small-business employers in 2005 were in health care and social service industries.

Carroll Wilson,