The last few years have been some of the most difficult for business owners in the U.S. for a variety of reasons, including the COVID-19 pandemic and high inflation.
In an effort to help aspiring entrepreneurs, WalletHub has compiled a list of the best large US cities to start a business, and a notable number of cities in Florida are included.
WalletHub compared the relative opportunities of startups that exist in 100 U.S. cities, using 19 key metrics, ranging from five-year business survival rate to labor costs and office space affordability.
Several Florida cities rose in the rankings, with Orlando taking the top spot, in part due to the fact that the number of small businesses has grown faster than in most other cities, according to WalletHub.
The researchers noted that it is also one of the top cities in the Kauffman Early-Stage Entrepreneurship Index – meaning that not only does Orlando have a lot of startups, but these startups also have a high survival rate.
South Florida cities also secured high rankings, with Miami taking fifth place and Hialeah 17th.
Miami is one of the best places for business environment. This category considers factors such as average length of the work week, growth in the number of small businesses, startups per capita, average business revenue growth, and job growth.
Hialeah also ranked highly in the business environment category, as did Tampa and Jacksonville, which ranked second and fourth on the overall list.
| Overall rating | City | Total score | Business environment classification | Resource access classification | Classification of business costs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Orlando, Florida | 68.22 | 1 | 13 | 29 |
| two | Tampa, Florida | 62.73 | 4 | 39 | 26 |
| 3 | Charlotte, North Carolina | 62.07 | 11 | 20 | 30 |
| 4 | Jacksonville, Florida | 62.00 | 5 | 68 | 13 |
| 5 | Miami, Florida | 61.92 | two | 52 | 55 |
| 6 | Atlanta, GA | 60.09 | 10 | 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 | 21 |
| 10 | 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 | two |
| 16 | Lubbock, Texas | 56.17 | 51 | 4 | 50 |
| 17 | Hialeah, Florida | 55.97 | 6 | 100 | 28 |
| 18 | Boise, ID | 55.91 | 14 | 80 | 45 |
| 19 | Reno, Nevada | 55.27 | 45 | 12 | 48 |
| 20 | Aurora, CO | 55.24 | 19 | 83 | 27 |
The full report and analysis can be found on the WalletHub website.
