{"id":5152,"date":"2026-07-22T14:09:34","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T14:09:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5152"},"modified":"2026-07-22T14:09:34","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T14:09:34","slug":"california-ranks-as-nations-15th-best-business-climate-whos-no-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5152","title":{"rendered":"California ranks as nation\u2019s 15th best business climate. Who\u2019s No. 1?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<p>Nobody ever said California was an easy place to do business.<\/p>\n<p>Yet, even with all the grumbling about its economic environment, the state\u2019s economy keeps outperforming the critics.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5150\">Coast Guard airlifts Carnival cruise passenger off Humboldt Bay to Mendocino County hospital<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>RELATED:\u00a0California foreclosures at 7-year high: Time to worry?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>My trusty spreadsheet peeked inside numerous \u201cbest state for business\u201d rankings and related economic stats to create its own national ranking of business climates. By these calculations, California is the nation\u2019s 15th-best state for business.<\/p>\n<p>How? Well, 36 business and economic metrics were used to create five yardsticks of business performance, measuring entrepreneurship, workforce, economic strength, business friendliness and the costs to do business.<\/p>\n<p>A sixth yardstick was a compilation of eight other \u201cbest states for business\u201d rankings. This shows how others view the same discussion and serves as a check against the math of my spreadsheet.<\/p>\n<p>Melding those six yardsticks together revealed that the best spots to run a business: Utah is No. 1, followed by North Carolina, Texas, Colorado and Florida.<\/p>\n<p>And the worst? Alaska, then Hawaii, Louisiana, West Virginia and Mississippi.<\/p>\n<div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Putting bragging rights aside, let\u2019s use these rankings to see what\u2019s working and what isn\u2019t for California\u2019s business scene. Peek inside the scorecard to see California\u2019s strongest business trait to its weakest.<\/p>\n<h4>No. 1 for entrepreneurship<\/h4>\n<p>California thrives on out-of-the-box thinking. Creative twists help replace what\u2019s lost to a difficult-to-navigate business landscape.<\/p>\n<p>This yardstick weighed rankings of everything from venture capital to business survival rates to innovation potential and technology usage.<\/p>\n<p>After California\u2019s top grade for entrepreneurship came Colorado, Texas, Illinois and Massachusetts.<\/p>\n<div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The least innovative states? Hawaii, Alaska, Arkansas, West Virginia and Kentucky.<\/p>\n<h4>No. 6 for workforce<\/h4>\n<p>If California is an anti-business state, it\u2019s also got pro-worker vibes \u2013 a big bonus to the Golden State\u2019s focus on innovation.<\/p>\n<p>This yardstick weighed rankings of everything from college graduation rates and wages to labor productivity, job growth and worker rights.<\/p>\n<p>The five states better than California for employees were Massachusetts at No. 1, then Utah, Washington state, Maine and Virginia.<\/p>\n<p>The bottom five job markets were Wyoming, Louisiana, Alaska, Oklahoma and Mississippi.<\/p>\n<h4>No. 7 for economic strength<\/h4>\n<p>Even with all the hoops that businesses have to jump through in California, the state still turns out an impressive amount of goods and services. Companies want to be where the action is.<\/p>\n<p>This yardstick weighed rankings of everything from gross domestic product growth, business health, economic risks and access to capital.<\/p>\n<p>The six states with stronger economies that the Golden State by this math were Texas, North Carolina, Florida, Utah, Massachusetts and Delaware.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5148\">What is NAD+, the \u2018anti-aging\u2019 treatment connected to woman\u2019s death<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The worst? Rhode Island, then Alaska, Vermont, Mississippi and Hawaii.<\/p>\n<h4>No. 30 for business friendliness<\/h4>\n<p>California\u2019s bureaucracy can make it hard for businesses to succeed. Many policies limit the state\u2019s economic potential.<\/p>\n<p>This yardstick weighed rankings of everything from overall economic infrastructure, to access to resources, to business lending \u2013 as well as the everyday quality of life.<\/p>\n<p>This math that graded the Golden State at No. 30 says New Jersey is the most business-friendly, followed by Colorado, Massachusetts, Minnesota and Idaho.<\/p>\n<p>The worst? New Mexico, then Alaska, Louisiana, West Virginia and Hawaii.<\/p>\n<h4>No. 49 for costs<\/h4>\n<p>No surprise: California is an expensive place, and the business world is no exception. This financial headache makes Golden State business success challenging.<\/p>\n<p>This yardstick weighed rankings of everything from the prices of business formation and electricity to day-to-day operational expenses to the business tax burden.<\/p>\n<p>By this math, the low-cost states for business are North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wyoming and Mississippi.<\/p>\n<p>The only place costlier than California was New York. Coming in at No. 3 was Massachusetts, followed by New Jersey and Maryland.<\/p>\n<h4>What others think<\/h4>\n<p>The last slice of this \u201cBest for Business\u201d scorecard eyeballed how other rankings scored the states.<\/p>\n<p>If you don\u2019t like my calculations, here\u2019s the consensus view from CNBC, Rich State\/Poor State, America\u2019s Dashboard, CEO Magazine, MoneyGeek, National Business Capital and two from WalletHub: California ranked as the 27th-best place for business.<\/p>\n<p>The consensus top five? Utah, Texas, Florida, North Carolina and Indiana.<\/p>\n<p>And the worst places to do business, collectively, according to other rankings? Alaska, then Hawaii, West Virginia, Rhode Island and Louisiana.<\/p>\n<h4>Final thought<\/h4>\n<p>All these \u201cbest state\u201d scorecards mix statistical science with some mathematical art.<\/p>\n<p>For example, the choice and weighting of each metric within the scorecard can alter the final results. Note that for this scorecard\u2019s final grades, equal importance was given to six key business metrics.<\/p>\n<p>What if the importance of costs was doubled? That\u2019s California\u2019s weak spot. As a result, the Golden State\u2019s No. 15 overall ranking would fall to No. 24.<\/p>\n<p>Or imagine if the influence of entrepreneurship was doubled? California\u2019s strongest trait would help its ranking jump to eighth-best.<\/p>\n<p>So I suggest that any \u201cbest state\u201d scorecard be viewed best as a discussion starter \u2013 not as any iron-clad grading system.<\/p>\n<p><em>Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at jlansner@scng.com<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5146\">Map: Little Fire evacuation and perimeter near Pleasanton<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Even with all the grumbling about its economic environment, the state&#8217;s economy keeps outperforming the critics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5151,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>California ranks as nation\u2019s 15th best business climate. Who\u2019s No. 1? - Next City Digest<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/nextcitydigest.com\/?p=5152\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"California ranks as nation\u2019s 15th best business climate. 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