Want to start a small business? There's no place better than Utah

There’s more evidence that the hype about Utah being a good place for business is accurate. Six of the 10 best U.S. small cities to start a small business are in Utah, according to an April report from financial review and advice website WalletHub.

In its “Best Small Cities for Starting a Business in 2021,” WalletHub compared more than 1,300 American cities with fewer than 100,000 residents across 20 key metrics, including accessible financing, human-resource availability, workforce education levels, office space costs, labor costs and more.

St. George came out on top of the more than 1,300 cities surveyed, with Cedar City finishing second. St. George’s neighbor Washington was No. 4, Logan was No. 5, Midvale was No. 7 and Clearfield was No. 9. The only non-Utah cities in the top 10 were Williston, North Dakota, at No. 3; Aberdeen, South Dakota, at No. 6; Fort Meyers, Florida at No. 8; and Bozeman, Montana, was 10th.

Pleasant Grove (No.15), Lehi (No. 18) and Orem (No. 19) were also on the Wallet-Hub Top 20.

Washington and St. George had the highest average growth in the number of small businesses in their respective areas, according to the report.

Four of the five worst cities on Wallet-Hub’s 1,337-city list were in New Jersey, while all the 20 worst cities were on the East Coast.