The 10 Best Cities for Starting a Business in 2015

According to a Forbes slideshow, the 10 best cities for starting a business in the United States is based on:

Average revenue of businesses
Percentage of businesses with paid employees
Number of businesses per 100 people
Unemployment rate

It’s unclear as to what order these cities are supposed to be in or what makes these metrics an indicator of the best place to start a business. I decided to analyze the data further to determine how each city ranked based on each metric.

Here’s how the cities rank when compared by Average Revenue of Businesses:

Average Revenue of Businesses in 2015

In this category, Beaumont – Port Arthur, Texas is #1:

City	Average Revenue of Businesses
Beaumont – Port Arthur, Texas	$ 2,778,973.00
Bridgeport – Stamford – Norwalk, Connecticut	$ 2,145,214.00
Fort Wayne, Indiana	$ 1,965,562.00
Evansville, Indiana-Kentucky	$ 1,844,834.00
Peoria, Illinois	$ 1,698,149.00
Green Bay, Wisconsin	$ 1,594,448.00
Cedar Rapids, Iowa	$ 1,514,835.00
Boulder, Colorado	$ 721,489.00
Portland – South Portland – Biddleford, Maine	$ 716,382.00
Wilmington, North Carolina	$ 665,548.00

Here’s how the cities rank when compared by Percentage of Businesses with Paid Employees:

Percentage of Businesses with Paid Employees

In this category, Green Bay, Wisconsin is #1:

City	Percentage of Businesses with Paid Employees
Green Bay, Wisconsin	31.1%
Evansville, Indiana-Kentucky	27.5%
Portland – South Portland – Biddleford, Maine	27.5%
Peoria, Illinois	27.2%
Fort Wayne, Indiana	26.5%
Cedar Rapids, Iowa	26.1%
Boulder, Colorado	23.8%
Wilmington, North Carolina	23.6%
Beaumont – Port Arthur, Texas	22.9%
Bridgeport – Stamford – Norwalk, Connecticut	22.4%

Here’s how the cities rank when compared by Number of Businesses per 100 People:

Number of Businesses per 100 People

In this category, Wilmington, North Carolina is #1:

City	Number of Businesses per 100 People
Wilmington, North Carolina	15.1
Boulder, Colorado	14.1
Bridgeport – Stamford – Norwalk, Connecticut	11.8
Cedar Rapids, Iowa	8.3
Evansville, Indiana-Kentucky	8.2
Portland – South Portland – Biddleford, Maine	8.2
Fort Wayne, Indiana	7.7
Green Bay, Wisconsin	7.2
Peoria, Illinois	7.1
Beaumont – Port Arthur, Texas	6.9

Here’s how the cities rank when compared by their Unemployment Rate:

Unemployment Rate

In this category, Cedar Rapids, Iowa is #1.

City	Unemployment Rate
Cedar Rapids, Iowa	3.8%
Portland – South Portland – Biddleford, Maine	4.5%
Evansville, Indiana-Kentucky	4.8%
Green Bay, Wisconsin	5.1%
Boulder, Colorado	5.2%
Peoria, Illinois	5.3%
Beaumont – Port Arthur, Texas	5.8%
Fort Wayne, Indiana	6.3%
Wilmington, North Carolina	6.8%
Bridgeport – Stamford – Norwalk, Connecticut	6.8%

Here is the full list, by city, for the best cities for starting a business in America in 2015:

If you take the ‘best’ of each of the 4 categories, Evansville, Indiana-Kentucky is actually the best city for starting a business in 2015 (the lower the score, the better the rank):

City	Score
Evansville, Indiana-Kentucky	14
Cedar Rapids, Iowa	18
Green Bay, Wisconsin	19
Portland – South Portland – Biddleford, Maine	20
Boulder, Colorado	22
Fort Wayne, Indiana	23
Peoria, Illinois	24
Bridgeport – Stamford – Norwalk, Conneticut	25
Beaumont – Port Arthur, Texas	26
Wilmington, North Carolina	28