The number of publicly traded U.S. companies peaked in 1996 at 7,322. Today there are just over 3,700, according to Wilshire Associates. The U.S. population has risen nearly 50% since 1975, and real GDP has tripled. But the number of public companies has declined 21%.

Understanding why this happening, how we got here, and what we can do about it is an important topic we wanted to tackle. So we put together a report.

You can download it here.