Study: St. Louis, Springfield, KC earn high marks for cities to startup

Though still performing well on a national level, Kansas City, Mo., was recently rated as the third-best large city in Missouri for founders to start a business, according to a recent study.

Personal finance website WalletHub found that St. Louis and Springfield are the No. 7 and No. 11 best large cities to start a business in the U.S., respectively, surpassing Kansas City’s rank of No. 32.

WalletHub ranked 150 large cities by evaluating their performance across 18 differently-weighted metrics, ranging from business survival rate and office-space affordability to labor costs and access to resources. To learn more on the study’s methodology, click here.

St. Louis earned a high ranking thanks to its access to resources and low business costs, including low labor costs, office-space affordability, cost of living and corporate taxes. Springfield snagged a No. 1 national ranking for low business costs, which appears to have fueled its top-15 ranking.

Kansas City earned its ranking for relatively low business costs and business environment, which was calculated by startups per capita, five-year survival rate entrepreneurship index and more.

Kansas City’s dropped from its 2016 ranking in the study, in which it earned a No. 16 spot, while St. Louis ranked as the No. 5 city and Springfield earned No. 8.

Across the state line into Kansas, Wichita earned a No. 103 ranking and Overland Park nabbed a No. 122 rating.

Overall, Oklahoma City was ranked the top large city to start a business, followed by Salt Lake City and Charlotte. To see the complete ranking, click here.