Arkansas Ranks Low in Entrepreneurship, Heartland Forward Report Says

A U.S. map highlighting Arkansas

Heartland Forward of Bentonville released a report Tuesday that ranks states according to their entrepreneurial ecosystems.

Arkansas was ranked 46th according to the organization’s State Entrepreneurial Index. It was similar news for most of the states in the heartland —  the 20 states between the coasts —  as 16 of them ranked in the bottom 20.

California, New York, Utah, New Jersey and Colorado held the top five spots in the rankings. Texas was the highest-ranked heartland state at 14th.

The report’s index analyzed states based on metrics such as the percentage of total private sector employment combined with the percentage of employees who have obtained at least a bachelor’s degree at firms five years or younger. It also measured other metrics such as the percentage of households with computers and how much businesses invested in research and development.

“Our country was built on entrepreneurship, and it’s absolutely essential we support our local and small business owners as we aim toward economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Heartland Forward CEO Ross DeVol. “However, currently many of our heartland states lag behind the coasts in creating environments that are conducive to entrepreneurship. That’s why Heartland Forward prepared this report with recommendations of policy initiatives states can enact to spur entrepreneurship and position their local economies for diverse, equitable growth. With the right investment and approach, the heartland can be home to future generations of entrepreneurs as they fulfill their American dreams.”

Heartland Forward said the report showed that policies at the state level have to adjust to improve the entrepreneurship environments in the heartland states. Only three heartland states made the top 25 in the rankings.

“Lawmakers are typically focused on large corporations or small mom and pops, but high growth companies —  young firms —  are technically neither one nor the other,” said Bobby Franklin, the CEO of the National Venture Capital Association. “Rather, they are hopefully on their way to becoming the next Fortune 500. Our job at the National Venture Capital Association is to help policymakers understand the entrepreneurial ecosystem. As shared in Heartland Forward’s report, this pipeline of companies is very important to our economy as they drive innovation that brings services and technology to market, and undoubtedly, the heartland needs more support in making this happen for entrepreneurs and the region they call home.”