Rockville Named A Best City For Women Entrepreneurs

Rockville – often praised as a strong business community in a great school system – has recently been named one of the best places for female business owners in the country by an organization that specializes in data crunching.

GoodCall last week released its 2015 list of Best Cities For Women Entrepreneurs. Annapolis landed at No. 5 on the list, while Rockville placed at No. 7.

According to the rankings, 32 percent of the businesses in Annapolis are owned by women.

Cities on the top 10 list include:

1. Alpharetta, Ga.
2. Dublin, Ohio
3. Baton Rouge, La.
4. Walnut Creek, Calif.
5. Annapolis, Md.
6. Houston, Tx.
7. Rockville, Md.
8. Novato, Calif.
9. Peachtree City, Ga.
10. Monterey, Calif.

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• Bethesda and Rockville Among 10 “Snobbiest Small Cities in America”

Noting that the number of women-owned businesses is “growing faster than ever,” GoodCall decided to analyze 405 cities across the country to “show which areas provide the best support for female entrepreneurs and which cities provide the worst.”

“Surprisingly, small to mid-sized cities dominated the top of the list – great news for women entrepreneurs who don’t care for the big city lifestyle,” GoodCall added.

For its metrics, GoodCall reviewed the following data for each city it placed under the microscope:

Difference in educational attainment, or the percentage of women versus the percentage of men who have achieved a bachelor’s degree or higher, which accounted for 30 percent of a city’s score;

Percentage of women-owned businesses, 25 percent;

Unemployment rate, 20 percent;

Change in gross domestic product, year over year, 15 percent); and

Networking, or the number of small businesses per capita in each city,10 percent).

Tell us: what do you think of the list?

»Image via Shutterstock