Survey: Iowa No. 1 for cheapest office space, No. 37 for best place to start business

A personal finance website has ranked Iowa as the nation's 37th-best state for starting a business.

Published Monday, the survey by WalletHub compared the 50 states across three key dimensions - business environment, access to resources and business costs - which were evaluated using 26 relevant metrics.

Among the metrics, Iowa ranked No. 1 in financing accessibility, with the average small business loan amounting to $29,432.

The state also ranked first for cheapest office spaces, with an average annual rent of $12.08 per square foot, or 2.2 times cheaper than in New York, which had the most expensive average annual rent at $26.66 per square foot.

Among the other metrics, Iowa ranked No. 5 in terms of five-year business survival rates, No. 8 for growth of average business revenues, No. 11 best cost of living, No. 35 in terms of college-educated population, No. 37 for growth in its number of small businesses and No. 44 in availability of human capital.

Those and other metrics contributed to Iowa's key dimension rankings as having the No. 39 best business environment, No. 32 best access to resources and No. 27 best business costs.

WalletHub's survey ranked Texas, Utah, Georgia, North Dakota and Oklahoma as the top five states, with Rhode Island, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Hawaii and Connecticut ranked as the five worst.

l Comments: (319) 398-8366; thomas.friestad@thegazette.com