The Most Entrepreneurial Cities in America, Ranked

How the Entrepreneurial Momentum Index Works

The Entrepreneurial Momentum Index scores all 75 cities on how actively their residents are starting businesses. Each city earns three component ranks, and those combine into a single final rank from 1 to 75. A lower number means a stronger showing, so a rank of 1 leads the country.

The three components are:

• Entrepreneurial Intent Rank: how often residents search for business-starting terms like "how to start a business" and "small business loans," measured per capita.

• Business Application Growth Rank: how fast new business applications grew in each city's county from 2020 to 2025.

• 2025 Business Applications Rank: how many new business applications residents filed in 2025, measured per capita.

These signals point to where people want to start businesses and where they actually are making it happen.

Atlanta claimed the top spot on the index, driven by two of the three components. It ranks first in the country for entrepreneurial search intent, with residents looking up business-starting terms more often per capita than anywhere else, and it ranks second for the sheer number of new business applications filed in 2025.

That combination of strong demand and high volume was enough to carry Atlanta to first overall, even though its application growth rate since 2020 was the slowest in the study. In other words, Atlanta is not a fast riser so much as an established hub where interest in starting a business is already high and new businesses are already forming in large numbers.

Miami and Albuquerque round out the top three. Miami's high ranking comes largely from its business formation numbers, where it ranks first in the country for new applications per capita. Albuquerque's top-three finish is powered by the fastest application growth nationwide, even though local search interest ranks lower.

Where Entrepreneurial Activity Lags

El Paso landed at the very bottom, ranking 75th. Its finish was driven by weak performance in two categories. Residents there searched for business-starting terms less often than in almost any other city in the study, and the city posted one of the lowest rates of new business applications per capita. Chesapeake and Tulsa joined it as the three least entrepreneurial cities.

How the Cities Compare on Each Signal

Ranking cities on each signal separately shows just how wide the gaps run. Atlanta made about nine times as many business-starting searches per capita as last-place Lincoln, while Miami filed more than five times as many new applications per capita as Buffalo.

Miami had the most new business applications per capita in 2025, edging out Atlanta's home county for the top spot (4,783 vs. 4,574). At the other end, Buffalo filed the fewest applications per capita of any city in the study (931).

Business application growth tells a separate story from raw volume. Albuquerque saw applications grow 202% from 2020 to 2025, the fastest rate in the country and well ahead of second-place Sacramento (+121%). Several cities moved in the opposite direction over the same period, with New Orleans posting the steepest drop at -32%, followed by Memphis (-17%).

Search intent shows the widest spread of the three categories. Atlanta led with 40,378 business-starting searches per 100K residents, more than any other city by a wide margin, with Miami and Orlando next. Lincoln, El Paso, and Anchorage sat at the bottom, each with fewer than 5,000 searches per 100K.

What Aspiring Business Owners Are Searching For

The search interest we measured breaks down into four categories: getting started, side hustles, forming an LLC, and finding financing. Looking at each one separately shows what aspiring business owners are trying to figure out.

Atlanta led the overall search-intent score and topped every one of the four individual categories, from generic "how to start a business" queries to LLC formation. Funding and capital searches for SBA loans, small business loans, and grants made up roughly 75% of Atlanta's total search volume. That tilt suggests residents there are already sold on starting a business and are focused mainly on how to pay for it.

El Paso showed the opposite pattern, ranking among the bottom five cities across all four search categories, reinforcing its last-place finish on the broader index.

Turning Search Interest Into Real Financing

The cities at the top of this ranking are home to people who are thinking about starting a business and taking steps to make it happen. Whether you're launching a side hustle or building a full-time company, finding the right financing can help turn a good idea into a growing business.

Clarify Capital helps small and midsize business owners compare funding options with guidance from experienced U.S.-based lending advisors. Explore financing options today and see how we can help you take the next step toward starting or growing your business.

Methodology

This ranking draws on three signals across 75 major U.S. cities:

• Business application rate 2025: from the Census Bureau Business Formation Statistics, county-level

• Business application growth from 2020 to 2025: from the Census Bureau Business Formation Statistics, county-level

• Google Search interest: 2023 to present city-level search volume for the following nine terms:

  • How to start a business

  • How to start a side hustle

  • How to start a small business

  • How to start an LLC

  • LLC formation

  • SBA loan

  • Side hustle ideas

  • Small business grants

  • Small business loans

All three signals were converted to a per-capita basis: business applications and their growth rate per 100,000 county residents, and search volume per 100,000 city residents. Each was min-max normalized to a 0–100 scale and averaged into an equally weighted composite score for the Entrepreneurial Momentum Index. Because the Census Bureau publishes business application data at the county level, we associated each county to its largest city when reporting.

About Clarify Capital

Clarify Capital helps small and midsize business owners secure the financing they need, including no-doc business loans and fast business loans of up to $5 million. Our U.S.-based lending advisors match business owners with tailored financing, backed by the highest trust rating in the industry.

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