Wall Street 24/7an online financial and opinion company, which ought to know, just named South Dakota the 2nd most business-friendly state in the country. How did they come to this revelation? They crunched numbers and compiled data from numerous sources, of course, and looked for elements that businesses consider vital when deciding where to locate.

They compiled what they consider 47 essential measures and divided them into 8 categories:

  • Economic conditions
  • Business costs
  • State infrastructure
  • Availability and skill level of workforce
  • Quality of life
  • Regulations
  • Technology and innovation
  • Cost of living

Within those categories they considered things like region-specific policies and regulations, median wages and salaries, crime rates, housing costs, poverty rates, tax policies, number of people in an area with health insurance, access to art, entertainment and recreation activities, and much more.

When all the data was compiled and analyzed these were the top 10 best states for business:

  1. Massachusetts
  2. South Dakota (up from 10th place last year)
  3. Utah
  4. North Dakota
  5. Colorado
  6. New Hampshire
  7. Minnesota
  8. Washington
  9. Vermont
  10. Virginia

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