PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island is the fifth-worst state in the nation to start a business, according to a WalletHub report released Tuesday.
The report considered 27 metrics to evaluate three categories: business environment, access to resources and business costs.
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Rhode Island ranked No. 47 for business environment, No. 16 for access to resources and No. 36 for business costs.
The Ocean State ranked second worst in New England, only above Connecticut, which ranked No. 49 in the nation. Rhode Island also ranked 46th nationally in 2021, the last time WalletHub did such a study.
Among the 28 metrics, Rhode Island received its worst rankings in the report for its average length of workweek in hours at No. 47, and its cost of living at No. 47. Other lackluster rankings for the state included No. 36 for labor costs, No. 33 for both average growth in number of small businesses, No. 27 for office space availability and No. 22 for availability of human capital.
Utah ranked No. 1 overall. That state was No. 7 for business environment, No. 1 for access to resources and No. 32 for business costs.
In New England, Maine ranked highest at No. 13. That state was No. 10 for business environment, No. 41 for access to resources and No. 18 for business costs.
Massachusetts was No. 18 overall, followed by Vermont at No. 33 and New Hampshire at No. 38, Rhode Island at No. 46 and Connecticut at No. 49.
(Update: Corrects last time Rhode Island was ranked and when last WalletHub study was done)
Though RI performs poorly in these metrics no matter who does the ranking, someone at WalletHub must have had a bad meal or failed relationship in RI. They love to ding us time after time and in some “surveys” of theirs, RI appears to come out worse than we actually are. Whenever I see WalletHub, its “oh Boy, here we go”.