The 10 Best Places for Millennials to Start a Business
New research has revealed Tallinn in Estonia to be the world’s best city for millennials starting a business, but Canada as a country arguably wins overall. With millennials forming the backbone of the “digital nomad” generation, this data shows where the future centres of innovation and entrepreneurialism could be.
Tallinn, with its reputation for being digitally savvy, tops the leaderboard owing to a combination of the ease of registering property, starting and running a business on a day-to-day level, and trading across borders, among other metrics.
Overall, Canada is the most appealing country for young entrepreneurs to start a business, with four of its major cities, Vancouver, Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto featuring in the top ten.
Whilst London also makes it into the top ten, New York narrowly misses out on a top spot, with Sao Paulo (Brazil) and Lagos (Nigeria) languishing in last place.
What are millennial entrepreneurs looking for?
Taxes and business legalities have always been a feature of starting a business, however, millennials are looking for more than just simplified bureaucracy. Here are some of the key factors in attracting young entrepreneurs:
Digitally-Savvy Cities
Digital connectivity is a non-negotiable in the 21st Century working world, where location-independent entrepreneurs are set to dominate.
- Despite not featuring in the top ten, Moscow leads the way for public wifi hotspots, offering a total of 41,250
- By contrast, both London and New York offer around 12,000, Berlin just 4,601, and Tel Aviv – world-renowned for its innovation in science and technology – a paltry 351
- Helsinki offers the fastest internet connectivity, racing ahead with 17.4mbps
- Ironically, the Silicon Valley offers some of the slowest Wifi, at 3.7mbps
Diversity is Key
Diversity in business broadly equates to fairer representation across the whole of society. In this study, diversity was ranked according to the relative number of businesses with female and/or immigrant founders.
- With 31%, Silicon Valley led the way on the diversity front
- London (17%) lagged behind New York (25.5%), Chicago (24.5%) and Paris (26.5%)
- Cape Town and Seoul came second and third overall for diversity, with 28.5% and 28% respectively of their businesses founded by minorities
Cost of Living
Millennials around the world are notoriously trapped by soaring rents and ever-less attainable property ladders.
- Of the top ten, the stats reveal that most have a relatively high cost of living, however, Ottawa and Vancouver are notable exceptions
- Perhaps surprisingly, Singapore and even New Zealand are ranked as having a higher cost of living than London.
The top 10 can be viewed in detail here with an engaging interactive infographic.
