The entrepreneurs had all been unemployed for at least six months before joining the New Enterprise Allowance scheme, which launched last August.
NEA offers unemployed people expert help to develop their business plan and financial assistance to get their companies up and running.
To date, more than 260 people in Hull have joined the programme and 115 have started trading – more than any other region in the country.
None of the people who have started their own business under the scheme have come back and started claiming benefit.
Alvin Riley, 53, of Hedon, received help to set up The Pyjama Shop at Hull Royal Infirmary to provide sleep wear, baby hampers and other essentials to patients and staff at the hospital.
He said: “This scheme is a great idea. I would recommend it to anyone, if they have a good business idea they should go for it because the support is there.”
Stuart Griffiths, district manager for Job Centre Plus, said: “We are delighted by the take-up. People who haven’t been able to find a suitable job have taken the initiative and started on their own.
“We haven’t had any national figures but we know from our own internal information that we are getting substantially more people taking the plunge and starting their own business than other districts across the country.
“These people have been unemployed for six months. It would be easy for them to feel down in the dumps but having found there isn’t a job in their chosen field they have taken the brave decision to go for it.”
