Kansas is home to a higher than average percentage of middle market firms, while Missouri has seen a surge in the number of those companies, according to a new report from American Express and Dun & Bradstreet.

Middle market firms — those with $10 million to $1 billion in annual revenues — comprise nearly 1.2 percent of total firms in Kansas, the fourth best result in the country. In Missouri, middle market firms represent 1.12 percent of all companies. Both are higher than the national average of .96 percent.

Meanwhile, Missouri saw a 93.2 percent increase in the number of middle market firms between 2011 and 2016, a higher than average result. Kansas had a growth rate of 79.9 percent.

The fifth Middle Market Power Index report finds that the middle market is an important part of the U.S. economy. While comprising less than 1 percent of firms, the middle market accounts for 53 percent of total job growth since 2011, and employs more than one in four private sector workers.

The index also found that in the last five years the total number of all commercially active firms declined, but the number of middle market firms nearly doubled. This is a much larger increase than was seen among smaller or larger firms.

While nearly every industry is represented in the middle market, the industries that dominate it include retail trade, wholesale trade, health services, manufacturing and educational services.

Also noted in the study, many of the small firms that have topped the million-dollar mark in annual revenue and are nearing the middle market are more likely to be women or minority-owned.