How Attractive is Virginia to Businesses?

Date: July 18, 2017

 

Virginia’s gubernatorial election is gaining momentum, with candidates offering various proposals to improve the state. But how does Old Dominion rate now?

When it comes to attracting new businesses and startups, WalletHub analysts rated Virginia 17th best in a recent report.

“Startups fail for different reasons,” the study said, “a ‘bad location’ among the most common. Choosing the right state for a business is therefore crucial to its success. A state that provides the ideal conditions for business creation—access to cash, human capital, and affordable office space, for instance—can help new venture not only take off, but also thrive.”

To rank all 50 states, WalletHub analysts compared them using an evaluation of 20 metrics that fell under three key categories: business environment, access to resources, and business costs. These included factors like average growth in number of small businesses, average growth of business revenues, five-year business survival rate, taxes, labor costs, availability of human capital, and financing accessibility.

Virginia scored 47.34 out of 100, ranked 17th for business environment, 13th for access to resources, and 33rd for business costs. Compared to neighboring states, Virginia fared better than all but one: North Carolina, which came in at 12th. Kentucky ranked 19th, Maryland ranked 48th, Tennessee ranked 27th, and West Virginia ranked 22nd.

According to the Tax Foundation’s midyear report, Virginia also ranked well for its sales taxes. Its combined state and average local sales tax rate of 5.63 percent was one of the 10 lowest in the country.

Related Content: Small Business News | Economy | Virginia

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