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May 04, 2021 | Tom Ballard

WalletHub ranks top 100 large cities, 1,337 small cities for starting a business

WalletHub is out with its latest surveys of the best 100 large and 1,337 small cities in which to start a business.

In the first category, three of the top seven are in the neighboring state to our east. Durham comes in at #2, Charlotte at #6, and Raleigh at #7. Winston-Salem is #15, giving the Tar Heel state slightly more than 25 percent of the top 15.

How did Tennessee rank? Nashville came in at #19 and Memphis was #57. Neither Chattanooga nor Knoxville made the 100 ranked. You can find the top 100 listing here.

In the smaller cities category, we have read a lot about entrepreneurship in the State of Utah, and the WalletHub report affirms that fact. Twelve of the top 25 cities that are good places to start a business are in that state.

As far as Tennessee’s smaller cities go, Spring Hill, home to the former Saturn and now General Motors plant, is the highest ranked at #53. Gallatin comes in at #87 followed by Lebanon (#115), Cookeville (#121), Columbia (#134), Johnson City (#234), Franklin (#239), LaVergne (#284), Morristown (#304), Hendersonville (#331), Maryville (#357), Bristol (#374), Mount Juliet (#398), Cleveland (#410), Brentwood (#431), Kingsport (#437), and Oak Ridge (#486). Click here for the complete list.

Wallet Hub evaluated the cities across three dimensions (business environment, access to resources, and business costs) using 21 relevant metrics.


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