Interesting look at which states are the best for entrepreneurs:
States in the Northeast and West Coast are most favorable for startups, according to the latest State Entrepreneurship Index published by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln last week.
The annual index ranks states using the number of businesses that open and close, the average earnings of its entrepreneurs, the number of patents per capita, and other data, says Eric Thompson, an economics professor and director of the university’s Bureau of Business Research.
New York, Washington state, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Oregon topped the list. South Carolina came in with the lowest ranking, while Nevada plummeted 40 spots to 47 for the biggest change on the index. Alabama, Mississippi, and Arizona were also in the bottom five.
Thompson says states in the South and Southwest had a higher number of business closures compared to the rest of the country, which contributed to their poor index performance. He suggests attitudes toward entrepreneurship and economic development affected states’ rankings.
