Kansas City falls in the top 10 when it comes to the best U.S. cities to launch a business, at least according to one data analysis.
Real Estate Witch compared the 50 most populous U.S. metro areas across 12 metrics. The weighted rankings evaluated several criteria, including business applications per 100,000 people in the last five years, employment growth in the last 12 months, average annual income, LLC filing fees, incorporation filing fees, corporate tax rate, chief executives per 1,000 people, Google Trends data and patents filed per 1,000 people in the last five years.
Kansas City was ranked No. 10 on the list, one spot ahead of Raleigh, North Carolina and slightly below Denver (No. 9). You can check out the full list here.
Here are Kansas City's stats:
- 5,026 business applications per 100,000 residents
- $58,057 average annual income
- 4.40% employment growth in the last 12 months
- 4.58% corporate tax rate
- 1.84 CEOs per 1,000 residents
- Nearly two patents filed per 1,000 residents
Kansas City was the only Midwestern city to make it into the top 10 of the ranking.
Las Vegas claimed the top spot with the lowest corporate tax rate and highest employment growth in the last year of 8.5%, which was double the national average. Miami had the fastest growing startup scene with 14,058 business applications per 100,000 residents over the last five years. Three Florida cities, Orlando, Miami and Tampa Bay, all got high marks.
Data was collected from U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Economic Analysis, Bureau of Labor Statistics, UpCounsel, Google Trends, U.S. Patent Office, and the American Legislative Exchange Council Center for State Fiscal Reform.
