Want to mind your own business? Then go to Florida.
A lot of people already have made the move to the Sunshine State. From July 2021 to July 2022, Florida's population grew to over 22 million people, according to Census Bureau data.
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"While Florida has often been among the largest-gaining states,” Kristie Wilder, a demographer in the bureau’s population division, said in a statement “this was the first time since 1957 that Florida has been the state with the largest percent increase in population.”
Florida also nailed down the top four spots in WalletHub's study of best large cities to start a business.
Orlando was the top city in the survey, scoring well in such areas as business environment, access to resorts and business costs.
This is probably not too surprising, given that Orlando is one of the most-visited cities in the world primarily due to tourism, major events, and convention traffic.
'The Research Triangle'
The Orlando International Airport is the 13th-busiest airport in the United States and the 29th-busiest in the world. That's a whole lot of busy.
Home to Walt Disney World, Universal Orlando Resort and several other theme parks, the "City Beautiful," as its called, was named the largest U.S. travel and tourism city destination for 2022 by the World Travel & Tourism Council and over 104 million travelers stopped in for a visit last year.
Orlando was followed by Jacksonville, Miami, which was No.1 on the business environment list, and Tampa
Durham, NC, was fifth on the list of start-up cities and ranked 5th on the list for access to resources as well. The city is part of the so-called "Research Triangle Region," known for its technology companies and scholarly institutions
Rounding off the top 10 cities were Boise, ID, Atlanta. GA, Charlotte, NC, and Fort Worth, TX.
While Boise ranked high in the business environment area, the city, which saw a boom during the Covid-19 pandemic, experienced a dramatic drop in home prices, according to a recent report from the real estate platform Redfin (RDFN).
The Deciding Factors
In compiling the list of cities, WalletHub said it compared 100 cities, across three key dimensions: business environment, access to resources and business costs.
The sample considers only the city proper in each case and excludes cities in the surrounding metro area.
The three dimensions were evaluated using 19 relevant metrics, including, working age population, labor costs, five-year business survival rate, and job growth
While Americans are born with an entrepreneurial streak WalletHub said that "the past few years have been some of the toughest ones ever for business owners in the US due to the Covid-19 pandemic the great resignation and high inflation."
As far as the downside, Pittsburgh, New York City, Jersey City, Fremont, CA were at the bottom of list, with Washington, D.C. coming in dead last.
The nationals capital received particularly low scores in the areas of business environment and business costs.
