My kind of town

Entrepreneur, Jan, 2005

My Kind of Town

HOW ENTREPRENEURIAL IS your city? Visa asked that question and developed the Visa Entrepreneurial Index, which assigns a score between 1 and 100 to the nation's major Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) based on two main criteria: the average number of new business licenses and DBA registrations; and the number of utility patents issued. Here are the 10 most entrepreneurial MSAs below; read the full list at www.entrepreneur. com/mag/visadties.

Rank   MSA               State   Score

1      Austin             TX      95
2      San Diego          CA      93
3      West Palm Beach    FL      93
4      Houston            TX      90
5      Raleigh            NC      90
6      Dallas             TX      87
7      Detroit            MI      86
8      Salt Lake City     UT      85
9      Phoenix            AZ      81
10     Seattle            WA      81

SOURCE: Visa USA