Laredo leads Texas, ranks 11th in nation for Hispanic entrepreneurs

Laredo ranked as the best city in Texas and came just shy of making the Top 10 in the 2023 Best Cities for Hispanic Entrepreneurs study conducted by WalletHub ranking 11^th out of 182 major cities studied nationwide.

According to WalletHub, one in every four new businesses started is Hispanic-owned, which led the personal finance website to present the study in honor of National Hispanic Heritage Month which runs from Sept. 15 through Oct. 15. The study features the 150 most populated U.S. cities and at least two of the most populated cities in each state.

The study utilized data from 24 different metrics to establish the rankings. They are spread between two categories of Hispanic business-friendliness and Hispanic purchasing power.

• Share of Hispanic-owned businesses
• Hispanic entrepreneurship rate
• Average growth of Hispanic business revenues (2017 vs. 2012)
• Presence of Hispanic Chamber of Commerce
• Small business-friendliness
• Entrepreneurial activity index
• Industry variety
• 5-year business survival rate
• Significant startups per capita
• Small-business loans per total number of small businesses
• Average monthly rent for office space
• Corporate tax rank
• Average length of workday

• Affordability
• Median annual income of Hispanics adjusted for cost of living
• Income growth for Hispanics
• Housing affordability for Hispanics
• Hispanic unemployment rate
• Hispanic job security
• Share of Hispanic residents
• Hispanic population growth
• Share of Hispanics with at least a bachelor’s degree
• Hispanic housing tenure
• City growth

Laredo was balanced across both categories ranking 24^th in Hispanic business-friendliness and 11^th in Hispanic purchasing power for an overall score of 58.02.

Eight of the top nine cities were from Florida led by Orlando at 67.42, Miami at 64.72 and Pembroke Pines at 64.59. Santa Clarita, California, was the one outlier in the top nine, and Albuquerque, New Mexico ranked No. 10.

Laredo was the highest-ranked city from Texas, and Amarillo was less than a point behind in 12^th place at 57.03. Texas had three more cities in the top 25 with San Antonio ranked 19^th (54.44), Corpus Christi ranked 23^rd (54.24) and Fort Worth ranked 25^th (54.02).

Laredo ranked at or near the top of two of the metrics. It ranked second in percent of Hispanic residents behind only Hialeah, Florida, and it tied for the highest share of Hispanic-owned businesses along with El Paso and Brownsville in Texas and Hialeah and Miami in Florida.

Other rankings for Laredo included eighth in Hispanic renter-to-owner ratio, 12^th in median annual income of Hispanics adjusted for cost of living and in housing affordability for Hispanics, 25^th in Hispanic entrepreneurship rate, 45^th in Hispanic income growth, 91^st in Hispanic unemployment rate and 96^th in percentage of Hispanics with at least a bachelor’s degree.