Home to mega-corporations like Coca Cola and Delta Airlines, it’s also the best place to start your own business, according to new LinkedIn data.
According to the job search site, Atlanta was recognized as the No. 1 metropolitan area in the U.S. with the fastest growth of 92% year-over-year in the number of business startups.
The Atlanta metro area is growing “at a breakneck pace” thanks to a strong jobs recovery since the pandemic, Fox 5 Atlanta reports. And according to a report from Wallethub, it was also recognized as the best place for young professionals to start their careers based on metrics such as job availability, average starting salary, unemployment rate, average annual income, housing affordability and family affordability. Friendliness.
Also in the South, No. 2 Austin experienced its own entrepreneurial boom during the pandemic as people fled expensive cities like San Francisco and New York, lured by the city’s warm weather, low cost of living and no state income tax. Last year saw an 84% increase in the number of founders.
Seattle rounds out the top three with a 75% year-over-year growth in its startup community. The city’s outsized tech scene could be a potential breeding ground for entrepreneurs to launch their own startups.
Here are the 10 metropolitan areas that are experiencing the fastest growth in starting their own businesses, according to LinkedIn:
Atlanta and Austin are both seeing strong immigration, says George Anders, senior editor at LinkedIn, “as people in all sorts of professions decide that these are the premier destinations for career, family and success.” Professional and private life perspectives.
Some newcomers may become entrepreneurs themselves, while existing residents may also view new people as potential customers. “They don’t have a favorite restaurant or store yet, so they’re more willing to try yours,” Anders says.
“They also need help buying homes, choosing schools, finding builders and more,” he adds. “So that leads to a very promising customer base that new entrepreneurs can tap into.”
Elsewhere in the country, Silicon Valley’s sole representative – San Francisco – is ranked fourth.
“Although the San Francisco Bay Area remains one of the world’s leading locations for technology startups, it is possible, or perhaps even likely, that smaller ‘Main Street’ companies are not opening at a nationally leading pace,” says Anders.
Other expensive cities like New York City and Los Angeles make the top 10, but are surpassed by lower cost-of-living areas like Chicago and Miami.
According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor report and the Washington Post, nearly one in five U.S. adults is in the process of starting a business or has done so in the last three and a half years.
Entrepreneurship is at its highest level since the survey began in 1999, following early predictions that job losses from Covid-19 could prompt more people to become self-employed.
Several years later, “we’re seeing an upward trend in entrepreneurship that’s continuing even during the pandemic, and that’s a really great sign,” Donna Kelley, a professor at Babson College and lead author of the report, told The Washington Post. “That means companies are innovating, creating jobs and contributing to the competitiveness of the United States.”
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