CNNMoney.com > Small Business > Best Places to Launch

FULL LIST
Akron, OH

Akron business statistics
Employer establishments with 1-49 employees
(2007)
16,557 11,214
Small business growth rate
(2004-2007)
-1% 5.0%
State business tax climate ranking
(out of 50 states)
47 N/A
Percentage of population with bachelor's degree
(ages 25-34)
34.3% 26.9%
Violent crime
(rate per 100,000 inhabitants, 2007)
313.1 478.8
Property crime
(rate per 100,000 inhabitants, 2007)
3,357.4 3,562.2
Population growth
(2003-2008)
0% 5.73%
Per-capita income
(2007)
$36,563 $35,547
Per-capita income growth
(2002-2007)
22% 24.0%
GDP (in millions)
(2006)
$26,179 $18,559
GDP growth
(2001-2006)
26% 32%
Average hourly wage
(2008)
19.24 $18.69
Housing foreclosure rate
(first half of 2009)
96 286
Median rent
(2009, for a 2-bedroom housing unit)
$805 $848
Housing price-to-income (HPI) ratio
(first quarter of 2009)
1.0% 1.9%
Long-term HPI ratio
(20-year average, 1984-2004)
1.44% 1.82%
HPI deviation from long-term average
-18% 0.0%

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
Best Places Winners
MAPS

BORROW

Local smallbiz lenders

  • Huntington Bancshares Incorpor
  • Citizens Financial Group
  • Key Bank
  • U.S. Bank
  • Firstmerit Corporation
See all local lenders

What do you think of Akron?
Video
ireportTell us why: Low taxes? Talented workers? An active small business community? Send us your photos and videos, and you could be featured in our upcoming coverage of reader-picked Best Places to Launch. More
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.