CHARLOTTE – The Queen City soared to No. 8 from No. 22 on the new “Best Places for Women Entrepreneurs” report from financial information site SmartAsset, led by a growing number of female-owned businesses and an improvement in the region’s startup survival rate.
Raleigh came 12th in an index ranking the country’s top 50 metro areas. That’s the same as last year.
Charlotte’s percentage of female-owned businesses climbed to 18.5% from 17.4% year-over-year.
Plus, starups are surviving at a 79.66% rate, an improvement from 78.9% one year ago.
Raleigh-Cary ranks No. 12 on ‘Best Places for Women Entrepreneurs’ list
Minneapolis-St. Paul led the list.
Rankings are based on several criteria:
Number of female-owned businesses
- Percentage of businesses owned by women
- Women-owned businesses as a percentage of businesses with greater than 500 employees
- New businesses as a percentage of total businesses
- New business applications in 2020 relative to previous years
- Percentage of businesses that had profits or broke even
- Startup survival rate
- Women-to-men pay ratio
- 2019 female unemployment rate
- September 2020 unemployment rate
SmartAsset graphic
