The Chamber of Commerce is always trying to toot its own horn about the benefits of starting a business in Western New York.  If you can get past the weather there are some attractive things to consider such a favorable cost of living, reasonable commute times and an eager workforce.

The personal financial website WalletHub crunched together numbers from 1200 small-size cities across the United States and some communities in Erie and Niagara County made the cut.  They measured 18 different factors in three major categories; Business Environment, Access to Resources and Business Cost.

Of any community in New York State and in the Northeast for that matter, Niagara Falls ranked the highest value in Business Cost when considering the affordability of office space, labor costs and cost of living. Niagara Falls ranked #15 out of more than 1200 cities.

Cheektowaga ranked #61.  North Tonawanda came in at #70.  Tonawanda was #84.  West Seneca was #117.

Those high numbers were negatively offset by Access to Resources - things like total annual value of small business loans, education level of the workforce and the age of the workforce.  Cheektowaga, Tonawanda and West Seneca had some of the lowest numbers of any city surveyed.

Overall the rankings among the Western New York communities that made the list:

  • Niagara Falls #119
  • Cheektowaga #249
  • Tonawanda #277
  • West Seneca #325
  • North Tonawanda #419

Here is the complete WalletHub report:

Source: WalletHub

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