Study ranks Illinois 29th in best states to start a business

[July 23, 2021]  By Andrew Hensel

(The Center Square) – A new study by WalletHub has Illinois ranked 29th out of 50 for best states to start a business in.

The study looked at factors including business environment, access to resources, business costs and other factors, according to Wallethub spokesperson Jill Gonzalez.

The three best states to start a business were Texas, Georgia, and California. Those states including Illinois all rank within the top 10 nationally in terms of population.

"We essentially looked at three things here in terms of starting a business," Gonzalez said. "Environment, access to resources, and business cost so across the board its those three things with about 30 other metrics in between them. "

Gonzalez said Illinois was in the bottom half of all states.

"It really comes down to its business environment right now," Gonzalez said. "Things like not a lot of growth in small businesses, a small number of startups per capita, and a five-year business survival rate could be better as well."

While Illinois ranks 29th nationally, it also ranks low in terms of midwestern states. Minnesota and Ohio are the only two midwestern states lower on this list than Illinois.

Illinois was hit hard during the pandemic and many businesses had to close their doors for good. Gonzalez said that while the pandemic caused many problems, it did not affect their study.

"Nationally the pandemic hit the U.S. hard, there was over 200,000 business lost permanently, but when we are looking at the factors in this study there are only 2 pandemic related metrics," she said.

Gonzalez said Illinois can make changes to move up on the list.

"It can range anywhere from tax breaks for businesses, fostering the start-up mindset by setting up a pipeline from the great universities the state has and just supplying grants," she said. "All of those things can help."

Illinois ranked 29th out of 50 states and ranked 40th in the business environment, 36th in business costs, and 8th in access to resources.