The Most Entrepreneurial Cities in America

Originally published on JohnJellinek.info

Recent years have seen the development of an excellent environment for entrepreneurship in the United States. The number of self-employed individuals is higher than it has been in decades, with many different sectors of society, from immigrants to the semi-retired, starting businesses of their own.

This boom in start-ups is consequential to a very high percentage of these new companies are finding success. In the past decade, about 80% of startups survived. That dispels the common notion that striking out alone on a new company is usually a losing proposition.

But, as with any economic phenomenon, this boom in entrepreneurship is not happening to the same extent in every part of the country. Some cities see much more start-ups than others. But which cities are the most start-up friendly? Real estate company CloudKitchens recently completed a study to find the “most entrepreneurial” cities in the nation.

In conducting their research, CloudKitchens calculated the percentage of workers in a given city that were self-employed. Then they factored in the city’s median income and the over-represented industries in the area. By this methodology, they determined what cities are the most entrepreneurial in America.

The urban region in the United States with the greatest percentage of self-employment is the Miami metro area, which includes Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach. In that area, 15.6 percent of workers are self employed, enough to make Miami the most entrepreneurial city in America.

The New York City area, meanwhile, ranks fifteenth among large cities with 10.5 percent of workers self-employed. While this leaves New Yorkers far behind their South Floridian counterparts, it is nevertheless a positive figure that demonstrates a healthy amount of entrepreneurship in the country’s hub of business activity.

There are small or medium-sized metro areas with even greater percentages of self-employed workers. Among mid-sized cities, the Naples area in Southwest Florida leads the pack with 18 percent of workers self-employed. And Barnstable, a town on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, leads the way among smaller towns with 20.8 percent. On the state level, Vermont and Montana have the highest rates of self-employment.

This is a good time for entrepreneurship in the country, and this research helps us plot the successes on the map.