North Carolina did not fare quite as well as it usually does in surveys of business climate, coming in at 12th on WalletHub’s recent ranking of the Best States to Start a Business.
To determine the most fertile grounds for planting and growing new ventures, WalletHub compared the 50 U.S. states across 25 key indicators of startup success. The data set ranges from financing accessibility to availability of human capital to office-space affordability.
North Carolina, particularly the Triangle region, frequently lands in the top five and is seldom out of the top ten on such rankings.
The results:
| Best States to Start a Business | Worst States to Start a Business | |||
| 1 | Texas | 41 | Alabama | |
| 2 | Utah | 42 | Maryland | |
| 3 | Georgia | 43 | Connecticut | |
| 4 | Montana | 44 | New Jersey | |
| 5 | Oklahoma | 45 | West Virginia | |
| 6 | Florida | 46 | Pennsylvania | |
| 7 | North Dakota | 47 | Vermont | |
| 8 | California | 48 | Rhode Island | |
| 9 | Arizona | 49 | New Hampshire | |
| 10 | Colorado | 50 | Hawaii | |
In other findings:
- Iowa has the cheapest average annual rent for office space, $12.08 per square foot, which is 2.2 times cheaper than in New York, the state with the most expensive at $26.66 per square foot.
- Mississippi has the lowest labor costs (median annual income), $40,528, which is 1.9 times lower than in Maryland, the state with the highest at $76,067.
- Massachusetts has the highest share of college-educated population, 41.30 percent, which is 2.1 times higher than in West Virginia, the state with the lowest at 19.60 percent.
- North Dakota has the most startups per 100,000 residents, 201.86, which is 2.9 times more than in West Virginia, the state with the fewest at 69.88.
- Colorado came in 2nd to Massachusetts in the most educated population list. Considered apart from the rest of the state, the Triangle frequently ranks highly among most educated regions.
- Alaska topped two lists, highest availability of human capital and longest average work week. That seems a bit odd, as do the others on the highest availability of human capital list: West Virginia, New Mexico, Nevada, and Montana.
- Another list that seems odd is Most Accessible Financing, which names North Dakota, Utah, Iowa, South Dakota, and Nebraska, while the least accessible list names Florida, California, Oregon, Nevada and Arizona. We’d like to know how they evaluated that category.
