NerdWallet tallied the top metro areas by population to determine this (surprising!) list of the best cities for young founders. With an equal weighting of loan data, cost of living, business activity, education and income, they’ve crunched the numbers to tally an overall score for 42 major cities. These 10 came out on top—and (shockingly!) the Alley and the Valley are nowhere to be found.
No. 10 Houston, Texas
- C&I Loans: $250M
- Cost of Living Index: 94.2
- Businesses per 100 Residents: 9.9
- Population with a Bachelor’s Degree: 28.4%
- Average income: $26,849
No. 9 Omaha, Nebraska
- C&I Loans: $51M
- Cost of Living Index: 89.4
- Businesses per 100 Residents: 8.1
- Population with a Bachelor’s Degree: 27.8%
- Average income: $26,113
No. 8 Austin, Texas
- C&I Loans: $28M
- Cost of Living Index: 94.4
- Businesses per 100 Residents: 10.8
- Population with a Bachelor’s Degree: 44.5%
- Average income: $31,170
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No. 7 Minneapolis, Minnesota
- C&I Loans: $52M
- Cost of Living Index: 110.8
- Businesses per 100 Residents: 10.4
- Population with a Bachelor’s Degree: 44.7%
- Average income: $30,693
No. 6 Seattle, Washington
- C&I Loans: $41M
- Cost of Living Index: 116.2
- Businesses per 100 Residents: 12.5
- Population with a Bachelor’s Degree: 55.8%
- Average income: $41,695
No. 5 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
- C&I Loans: $118M
- Cost of Living Index: 90.5
- Businesses per 100 Residents: 10.3
- Population with a Bachelor’s Degree: 27.9%
No. 4 Raleigh, North Carolina
- C&I Loans: $44M
- Cost of Living Index: 90.9
- Businesses per 100 Residents: 10.5
- Population with a Bachelor’s Degree: 47.3%
- Average income: $30,377
No. 3 Atlanta, Georgia
- C&I Loans: $62M
- Cost of Living Index: 95
- Businesses per 100 Residents: 9.8
- Population with a Bachelor’s Degree: 46.1%
- Average income: $35,884
No. 2 Tampa, Florida
- C&I Loans: $79M
- Cost of Living Index: 92.2
- Businesses per 100 Residents: 11.5
- Population with a Bachelor’s Degree: 32.2%
- Average income: $28,863
No. 1 Tulsa, Oklahoma
- C&I Loans: $125M
- Cost of Living Index: 88.3
- Businesses per 100 Residents: 10.7
- Population with a Bachelor’s Degree: 29.5%
- Average income: $26,727
This feature originally appeared in Forbes.
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