Women have always played an important role in real estate, and new numbers show their prominence has only grown.

The number of women-owned firms in real estate has grown by 41.4 percent in the last 12 years according to the 2014 State of Women-Owned Businesses Report, which was commissioned by American Express OPEN.

That represents a growth from 504,014 firms in 2002 to 712,800 in 2014, which is 25.6 percent of all real estate firms.

Here were some other key facts in report:

• There are 9.1 million women-owned businesses in the U.S., and real estate comprises 7.8 percent of those businesses.
• The aforementioned 41.4 percent growth was 11.4 percentage points higher than the 30 percent growth for all of real estate firms (meaning that women-owned firms grew at a much faster rate than the industry average).
• That 11.4 percentage point advantage was the second highest in the entire country; only miscellaneous other services (auto/appliance repair, beauty salons, pet sitting) saw a greater relative growth for women ownership.

Check out our graph below, which show’s in more detail how women ownership has grown in real estate.