Startup City Index Best Cities to Start a Business

PPH Reveals their Startup City IndexCanadian city Vancouver is number one for startups, beating Berlin into second place

Manchester flies the flag for the UK, ranked third best city to start a business, with London coming in 14th

If you’re planning to start a business, you might want to head to Vancouver, according to a new study by UK’s leading freelance marketplace PeoplePerHour.

The bustling Canadian seaport has been ranked the best place in the world to start a business, topping the Startup City Index with a high quality of life, good access to office space and relative ease of getting a company off the ground.

Berlin, a well-known startup hub came in at second place and perhaps surprisingly, it is Manchester in at third, beating competition from San Francisco and New York. In fact, Manchester far outperforms its UK rival, London, when it comes to startup appeal, thanks to its low cost of living and the great conditions it offers for startups. London came in 14th place overall, but it has a way to go if it wants to compete with its northern cousin.

Rounding up the top five cities for startups are the Portuguese capital of Lisbon (4th) and Sweden’s Stockholm (5th) who performed well for office availability and rents and ease of starting a business.

Using a variety of data to rank each city according to the factors most likely to impact upon startups, such as cost, quality of life and ease of starting a new business*,  PeoplePerHour created a metric to provide a definitive Index ranking the 25 cities.

California cities dominate the second half of the top ten, with San Diego (6th) and LA (9th) making an appearance.

With a business friendly environment and many tax incentives for startups it is no wonder that more and more businessmen are searching for agents specialized in opening companies in Singapore who can help them start their businesses in the Lion City.

And where should budding entrepreneurs avoid? At the bottom of the list is the Italian city of Rome marred by the high cost of living and low scores for ease of starting a business there. Tokyo comes in at 23rd and Paris in 24th position.

Xenios Thrasyvoulou, founder and CEO of PeoplePerHour, comments: ‘It’s fantastic to see that despite the worries over Brexit and the continuing fallout from the GEC, Britain has managed get two cities featured in the top fifteen rankings.

‘The fact that Manchester is the third best place in the world for new startups, beating the likes of New York, Sydney and London is phenomenal, and bodes really well for the future of the so-called “Northern Powerhouse”.

‘Britain has always been a leader when it comes to business and innovation. It’s really encouraging to see that despite the difficulties of recent years, that remains unchanged.’

Contributed content

Hernaldo Turrillo

Hernaldo Turrillo is a writer and author specialised in innovation, AI, DLT, SMEs, trading, investing and new trends in technology and business. He has been working for ztudium group since 2017. He is the editor of openbusinesscouncil.org, tradersdna.com, hedgethink.com, and writes regularly for intelligenthq.com, socialmediacouncil.eu. Hernaldo was born in Spain and finally settled in London, United Kingdom, after a few years of personal growth. Hernaldo finished his Journalism bachelor degree in the University of Seville, Spain, and began working as reporter in the newspaper, Europa Sur, writing about Politics and Society. He also worked as community manager and marketing advisor in Los Barrios, Spain. Innovation, technology, politics and economy are his main interests, with special focus on new trends and ethical projects. He enjoys finding himself getting lost in words, explaining what he understands from the world and helping others. Besides a journalist, he is also a thinker and proactive in digital transformation strategies. Knowledge and ideas have no limits.