Small businesses are often called the backbone of the U.S. economy. Well, if that’s the case, then Dallas County might be the spinal cord of small business in Texas.
Personal finance website Smart Asset ranks Dallas County the best place in Texas for small business owners. Nationally, Dallas County lands at No. 4.
To come up with its list, the website examined federal data to zero in on three factors: the number of small businesses operating in each county, how much income they generate, and what they pay in taxes.
Smart Asset then weighed each set of data to develop an index score, with 100 being the top number. Dallas County earned a score of 94.26 on the 100-point scale. It didn’t appear in Smart Asset’s Texas or national top 10 last year.
The Smart Asset study mostly aligns with other recent rankings for North Texas. For instance:
In March, personal financial website ValuePenguin picked Dallas-Fort Worth as the country’s sixth best place for small businesses.
A LendingTree study released in October put DFW at No. 19 among the best places in the U.S. to start a small business.
Fort Worth ranked ninth and Dallas ranked 14th on an April list from personal finance website WalletHub of the best places in the country to start a business.
According to Dallas Economic Development, nearly 80 percent of businesses in Dallas are small businesses, and they employ almost 40 percent of the city’s workers.
“Small businesses account for a significant number of jobs and play a key role in growing tax revenue. Small business is fundamental to workforce development, especially in minority, immigrant, and under-educated … communities,” the economic development agency says.
Courtesy of Smart Asset, here’s the rest of this year’s top 10 counties in Texas for small business owners:
Galveston County (Houston metro area), No. 2 in the state and No. 5 nationally
Haskell County (north of Abilene), No. 3 in the state and No. 6 nationally
Titus County (east of Sulphur Springs), No. 4 in the state and No. 8 nationally
Matagorda County (east of Victoria), No. 5 in the state and No. 9 nationally
Goliad County (west of Victoria), No. 6 in the state
Glasscock County (east of Midland), No. 7 in the state
Stonewall County (northwest of Abilene), No. 8 in the state
Brooks County (north of McAllen), No. 9 in the state
Midland County (Midland metro area), No. 10 in the state