The past few years have been some of the toughest on record for American business owners, due to a variety of reasons, including the coronavirus pandemic and high inflation.
To help aspiring entrepreneurs, WalletHub has compiled a list of the best U.S. cities to start a business. That includes a surprising number of cities in Florida.
WalletHub compared the relative startup opportunities in 100 U.S. cities using 19 key metrics, from five-year business survival rates to labor costs to office space affordability.
According to WalletHub, several Florida cities rank highly, with Orlando ranking first, in part because it has more small businesses than most other cities. The fact is that it is also rapidly increasing.
Researchers also noted that Orlando is also one of the top cities on the Kaufman Early Stage Entrepreneurship Index. This means that not only are there many startups in Orlando, but the survival rate of those startups is also high.
South Florida cities also secured top spots, with Miami coming in at No. 5 and Hialeah at No. 17.
Miami is one of the best places for business. This category takes into account factors such as average working hours, growth in the number of small businesses, number of startups per capita, average growth rate of business income, and growth in employment.
Hialeah also ranks highly in the business environment category, as do Tampa and Jacksonville, which ranked second and fourth on the overall list.
| Overall ranking | city | total score | Business environment rank | Resource access rank | Business cost rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Orlando, Florida | 68.22 | 1 | 13 | 29 |
| 2 | tampa, florida | 62.73 | Four | 39 | 26 |
| 3 | charlotte, north carolina | 62.07 | 11 | 20 | 30 |
| Four | Jacksonville, Florida | 62.00 | Five | 68 | 13 |
| Five | Miami, Florida | 61.92 | 2 | 52 | 55 |
| 6 | atlanta, georgia | 60.09 | Ten | 35 | 36 |
| 7 | Fort Worth, Texas | 59.50 | 8 | 18 | 66 |
| 8 | Austin, Texas | 59.37 | 3 | 17 | 81 |
| 9 | Durham, North Carolina | 59.29 | 42 | 3 | twenty one |
| Ten | St. Petersburg, Florida | 58.04 | 7 | 93 | 19 |
| 11 | raleigh, north carolina | 58.00 | 40 | 7 | 32 |
| 12 | Arlington, Texas | 56.86 | 12 | 47 | 65 |
| 13 | Colorado Springs, Colorado | 56.65 | 26 | 71 | 17 |
| 14 | dallas texas | 56.41 | 13 | 46 | 67 |
| 15 | Winston Salem, North Carolina | 56.22 | 50 | 62 | 2 |
| 16 | Lubbock, Texas | 56.17 | 51 | Four | 50 |
| 17 | Hialeah, Florida | 55.97 | 6 | 100 | 28 |
| 18 | boise, idaho | 55.91 | 14 | 80 | 45 |
| 19 | Reno, Nevada | 55.27 | 45 | 12 | 48 |
| 20 | Aurora, Colorado | 55.24 | 19 | 83 | 27 |
The complete report and analysis is available on the WalletHub website.
