How Austin Ranks in Business and Job Growth

People and businesses are moving to Austin. Some people move to Austin for the jobs. Some jobs move to Austin for the people.

Both Entrepreneur magazine and Visa USA recognize that the entrepreneurial spirit is thriving in Austin. On the Entrepreneur list we scored 95 out of a possible 100, beating out San Diego by 2 points; Houston (4), Dallas (6), and San Antonio (43) also made the list of best cities for entrepreneurs, based on such criteria as average number of new business licenses and DBA registrations and number of utility patents issued. Texas is a entrepreneurial state.

Austin Offers the Smartest Employee Pool
Well-educated employees draw businesses to Austin. A high number of individuals with undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees provides Austin companies with the smartest, brainiest, most talented people to help grow their businesses. Educational Attainment (9) helped land Austin in the #3 spot on the Forbes list of Best Places for Business and Career in 2005.

Business Travelers Come to Austin
Our climate, scenery, convention facilities, and perhaps our social scene and things to do after hours as well help bring business conventions and conferences to Austin. Additionally, technology helps business travelers get more done while on the road. Being the most internet accessible city in Texas- - with hundreds of wi-fi access points — and #3 nationwide makes Austin as attractive to out-of-town business people as to locals.

How Austin Ranks as Best Place for Business
Rank* List By

1 Top 50 Entrepreneurial Cities Entrepreneur
1 Most Entrepreneurial City Visa USA
2 Top 10 Cities For Moviemakers MovieMaker
2 Top 10 Places Where Ideas Happen Visa USA
3* Most Unwired Cities-Best for Net Access Intel
4 Smartest Cities Men’s Journal
6 Standard of Living Expansion Management
10 Self-Expression (2004) Visa USA
18* Top 25 Cities for Convention/Conference/Seminar Travelers Travel Industry Assn of America, et al
21* Top 25 Cities for General Business Travelers
Travel Industry Assn of America, et al
22 Most Supportive of the Community (2004) Visa USA
26 Brainiest Cities American City Business Journals
28 Best Places For Business Forbes