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Utah County has received a lot of attention in recent years for its business growth and stability. Amid all the hype, you rarely hear the name of Springville. But a new report from consumer finance website WalletHub named that town the third-best in America in 2017’s "Best Small City to Start a Business" listing. Clearfield finished ninth in the ratings. WalletHub defines a small city as having a population between 25,000 and 100,000 residents. “City” refers to the city proper and excludes any surrounding metro area.

From a list of 1,200 small-sized cities across the U.S., Springville finished behind just Holland, Michigan, and Carbondale, Illinois, in the listing of business-friendly markets. East Chicago, Indiana; Jefferson City, Missouri; Wilson, North Carolina; Enid, Oklahoma; Rio Rancho, New Mexico; and Cheyenne, Wyoming; completed the Top 10.

To determine the most business-friendly small markets in the U.S., WalletHub’s analysts compared the cities across 16 key metrics. The data set ranges from average growth in the number of small businesses to investor access to labor costs. Date was gathered from the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and other sources.