In a study released last week, the website Nerdwallet ranked the Long Beach, Los Angeles and Anaheim metropolitan area the 13th best place for minority-owned businesses out of 178 metro areas nationwide.
The study analyzed U.S. metropolitan areas, with populations of 250,000 or more, ranking them according to business climate (55 percent of the score), local economic health (20 percent of the score) and financing opportunities (25 percent of the score).
Specifically, the study examined the average revenue per minority-owned business, growth in minority-owned businesses from 2007 to 2012, minority-owned businesses per 1,000 residents (ranked in proportion), median household annual income for minorities and Small Business Administration (SBA)-guaranteed loans per 100,000 residents, among other criteria.
The Los-Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim area scored 54.16—in comparison, the top-ranked metro area, San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, scored 61.91. Average revenue per minority business (2012) was $225,779, minority-owned businesses per 1,000 residents (2012) was 60.38, growth in minority-owned businesses (2007-2012) was 34.8 percent, minority median household income (2014) was $50,450 and SBA-guaranteed loans per 100,000 residents (2015) was $18,864,659.
The Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim area ranked 13th, behind Santa Rosa California (seventh), and Provo-Orem, Utah (12th). The area came in just above Spokane-Spokane Valley, Washington (14th) and Springfield, Missouri (18th).
Data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Survey of Small Business, U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey and the U.S. SBA was used in calculating the score, the study stated.
The top 10 best places for minority-owned businesses were:
- San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California
- Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, Arkansas-Missouri
- Cedar Rapids, Iowa
- Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, Washington
- Madison, Wisconsin
- San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, California
- Santa Rosa, California
- Ogden-Clearfield, Utah
- Salt Lake City, Utah
- Austin-Round Rock, Texas