Continuing Decline In Number Of US Publicly Traded Companies

From CFO.com "Missing: Public Companies: Why is the number of publicly traded companies in the U.S. declining?" by Alix Stuart:

the number of publicly traded companies in the United States continues to fall, according to new data supplied by Grant Thornton. At the end of February, there were 5,091 companies listed on major U.S. exchanges, a 2% drop from 5,179 companies at the end of 2009 and a 42% decline from the peak of 8,823 in 1997. (The numbers include foreign firms listing in the United States.) "U.S. listings have decreased every single year since 1997 with no rebound at all," says Edward Kim, capital markets senior adviser to Grant Thornton.***Stock exchanges in virtually every other country continue to grow....