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Logan, UT
Logan
MSA: Logan, UT-ID
Best places ranking: #14 among small metro areas
Population: 125,070
Looking for a place off the beaten path, where entrepreneurship seems written into the local DNA? A university town teeming with top-rated engineering students? The rugged and beautiful Cache Valley near the northern Utah-Idaho border is a perfect place to start.

Anchored by Logan, Utah, and encompassing Franklin County in southeast Idaho, the region offers enviable resources for anyone eager to be their own boss. That's thanks in part to its history as a pioneer destination, but the frontier spirit reaches into more modern pursuits, such as efforts to lure high-tech firms with the Innovation Utah initiative at the University of Utah (in partnership with the University of Utah, two hours away in Salt Lake City). Also boosting the area's business profile is USU's standout engineering program.

But a focus on microelectronics doesn't mean mechanics are left out. The Cache Business Resource Center, a collaboration between the Cache Chamber of Commerce and other partners, offers a wealth of free assistance.

Mother nature is a major draw here, from the Logan Canyon National Scenic Byway to Bear Lake. It's one of the few places in America where you can snowmobile in the morning and enjoy nine holes of golf in the afternoon. Crime is also quite low. The only drawback locals could muster was that sometimes Logan's rich farming reputation can make it hard to sell the town as a hotbed of innovation. - Kathleen Ryan O'Connor
Launch Toolbox:
Resources for getting started in Logan, UT

BORROW

Local smallbiz lenders

  • Zions Bancorporation
  • Mountain America Federal Credit Union
  • America First Federal Credit Union
  • Celtic Investment
  • Wells Fargo & Company
See all local lenders

Logan Business Statistics
Employer establishments with 1-49 employees
(2007)		 3,254 3,516
Small business growth rate
(2004-2007)		 13.3% 4.1%
State business tax climate ranking
(out of 50 states)		 11 N/A
Percentage of population with bachelor's degree
(ages 25-34)		 30.1% 23.5%
Violent crime
(rate per 100,000 inhabitants, 2007)		 74.4 385.1
Property crime
(rate per 100,000 inhabitants, 2007)		 1,335.2 3,395.2
Population growth
(2003-2008)		 11.8% 4.93%
Per-capita income
(2007)		 $23,193 $31,933
Per-capita income growth
(2002-2007)		 20.5% 23.6%
GDP (in millions)
(2006)		 $2,658 $4,952
GDP growth
(2001-2006)		 37% 33%
Average hourly wage
(2008)		 $15.68 $17.50
Housing foreclosure rate
(first half of 2009, 1 per every X housing units)		 1,392 850
Median rent
(2009, for a 2-bedroom housing unit)		 $659 $737
Housing price-to-income (HPI) ratio
(first quarter of 2009)		 2.5% 1.8%
Long-term HPI ratio
(20-year average, 1984-2004)		 1.9% 1.7%
HPI deviation from long-term average
 26% 0.1%

All statistics are for the full Metropolitan Statistical Area. For a complete list of data sources, see "How we picked the Best Places."

From the November 2009 issue
Why I Launched Here
"Utah is full of people who have an entrepreneurial spirit. The quality of life is a huge draw. " -Bert Israelsen
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 Educated workers  Low housing costs
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How we picked the Best Places
This year we partnered with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation to find the 50 most business-friendly communities in America.

With help from Robert Fairlie, an economist and leading scholar of entrepreneurship at the University of California, Santa Cruz, we developed a methodology and sifted through such data on factors such as per capita income, hourly wages, workforce quality, crime rates, taxes and foreclosures. More

Comments? E-mail the editors
Data partners

This package was produced in partnership with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation.

Foreclosure data provided by RealtyTrac.

Housing price-to-income data provided by Moody's Economy.com.