This paper investigates the relationship between entrepreneurial culture and the rate of nascent entrepreneurship. Embedded in trait research, we develop a new composite measure of entrepreneurial culture using data from the World Values Survey. To corroborate the results obtained when regressing this newly developed measure on 2002 levels of nascent entrepreneurship in a sample of 28 countries, we also employ existing indicators of entrepreneurial culture, i.e. McClelland’s N achievement index (1961), Granato, Inglehart and Leblang’s Achievement motivation index (1996), Lynn’s Competitiveness index (1991), and GLOBE’s (2004) performance orientation measure. In contrast with the existing measures we find a significant positive effect of our new measure of entrepreneurial culture, leading us to i) discuss the strengths and weaknesses of these existing measures, and ii) interpret the wider implications of our findings for the research into the role of entrepreneurial culture in explaining international differences in entrepreneurship rates.