Utah dominates list of best small cities to start a business

PROVO, Utah – Locals looking to start their own businesses are in luck!

Six of the 10 best small cities to start a business are right here in the Beehive State, according to a new study from WalletHub.com.

The personal finance website used a number of factors to make its ranked list of 1,337 cities across the United States. Cities were ranked on business environment, which included factors like average commute time and COVID-19 deaths in the past week, access to resources, which included higher-education assets and job growth, and business costs, which includes cost of living and corporate taxes. The cities were also given an overall score across the categories.

In the end, St. George, Utah, was given the No. 1 spot.

Cedar City ranked second overall, Washington fourth, Logan fifth, Midvale seventh and Clearfield ninth. Herriman came in at 37th for overall rank, but it snagged the top spot on the list for access to resources.

Several cities in Maryland and New Jersey were ranked near the bottom of the list.

This isn’t the first study of the year to declare Utah as one of the most business friendly places in the country.

The non-profit Milken Institute ranked Provo-Orem as the best performing large city in the country on its annual Best-Performing City Index. That ranking methodology took into account factors such as job growth, income and housing accessibility.