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Growthink Blog

How Entrepreneur-Friendly Is Your State?

Print Written by Pete Kennedy on Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Categories:

The Small Business and Entrepreneurial Council recently released its ranking of the states that impose the fewest burdens on the growth of new businesses in their areas. 

The report analyzes dozens of factors affecting entrepreneurship including regulatory costs, health-care costs, and crime rates.

Here are the full rankings of all 50 states, including District of Columbia (which came in dead last):

  1. South Dakota
  2. Nevada  
  3. Wyoming
  4. Florida   
  5. Washington
  6. Texas     
  7. South Carolina
  8. Alabama
  9. Virginia
  10. Colorado
  11. Tennessee         
  12. Georgia
  13. Arizona
  14. Missouri
  15. Utah      
  16. Alaska   
  17. Mississippi
  18. Ohio       
  19. Michigan
  20. Indiana
  21. Oklahoma 
  22. North Dakota
  23. Kentucky
  24. Illinois
  25. Pennsylvania
  26. Wisconsin  
  27. Louisiana
  28. New Hampshire
  29. New Mexico
  30. Arkansas
  31. Kansas
  32. Oregon
  33. Montana
  34. Delaware
  35. Idaho        
  36. Nebraska
  37. Connecticut
  38. Maryland
  39. North Carolina
  40. West Virginia
  41. Hawaii
  42. Iowa
  43. Vermont
  44. Massachusetts
  45. New York
  46. Minnesota
  47. Rhode Island
  48. Maine
  49. California
  50. New Jersey
  51. District of Columbia


Click here to read the full report.


Where does your state fall on the list? 

Does your state's ranking reflect your personal experience?


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Dave Lavinsky says

South Dakota may be the most entrepreneur-friendly state, but right now it's -1 degrees outside. Seriously...this does affect productivity. When I moved from Los Angeles to NY a few years ago to open up the Growthink office, I forgot about snow days and bad weather. We probably lose 2-4 days a year in productivity here due to bad weather. Also, when assessing this list (if you're using it to base your company) keep in mind the talent pool and your ability to hire great people in each market.
Posted at 4:54 pm
Martin Babinec says

While some of the factors in the survival index make sense, there are several which probably don't have too high an impact on an entrepeneur's assessment of whether or not to launch a business. What would be interesting to see would be how this survival index actually correlates to new business creation data and related employment growth in those new businesses. If the new business and related employment growth is happening in states rated to be unfriendly to entrepreneurs by this survival index, than it would be pointing to a need for further research into the characteristics of those states fostering growth and then further tuning of the survival index.
Posted at 6:34 pm