By Adam Studzinski

BLOOMINGTON – Bloomington has been ranked the 20th best city in Illinois to start a business by Nerdwallet.com.

Several factors were included in creating the rankings, such as population and unemployment rate. Bloomington Economic Development Coordinator Austin Grammer said the city’s low unemployment rate was a major factor in the rankings.

“But then also just the number of businesses that actually have paid employees versus volunteer type organizations,” said Grammer. “So I think that, if you look around the business community, with low unemployment and a lot of businesses and a lot of great places to work that makes us a great place to have a business.”

Grammer added the populations overall high education level no doubt stood out as well.

“With high levels of education comes great wealth. We have a very affluent community, so it’s a great place to set up a business; especially a service type business,” he said.

Grammer said rankings like these help not only recruit start-up businesses, but also established companies looking to expand.

Nerdwallet ranked a total of 285 communities. Oak Brook came in at number one. The full list can be seen here.

Adam Studzinski can be reached at [email protected].