Zhejiang province had more than 4.4 million businesses as of the end of June, about one for every twelve people in a population of 55 million and a 12.6% increase over last year, South China Morning Post reported, citing provincial government statistics on the growth of enterprises, small family-run businesses and farmers’ cooperatives. Less then two years since the State Council called for loosening business registration thresholds, the number of enterprises in the province has also grown by an annual 16.4%, to a total of 1.3 million. As a result one in every 41 residents runs an enterprise, with almost 90% of the province’s companies privately owned.