Two Danish cities are the best places to launch a startup, with the city of Aarhus slipping in behind first-placed Copenhagen and ahead of the Czech capital, Prague.

That’s according to an analysis by Money.co.uk, which lists Dublin in fourth place ahead of Manchester, London, Bergen and Cork, which ranked eighth in the top ten world’s most entrepreneur-friendly cities. Krakow in Poland and Brno in Czechia took the ninth and tenth slots.

Britain emerged as the cheapest nation in which to register a business, while Denmark tops the list for Employer social security rates. Ireland is named the best location for low corporate tax.

Aarhus, Stockholm and Montreal offer the cheapest co-working spaces per desk, while Cork, Prague and Espoo in Finland boast the most coffee shops per resident.

But what about the worst? According to Money.co.uk they are, in order of unfriendliness, Milan, Marseille, Antwerp, Rome, Tel Aviv, Helsinki, Jerusalem, New York, Stockholm and Rotterdam — meaning Rotterdam is the least worst and Milan the worst.

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Student Density

To determine the cities where startups can find emerging talent to assist in business growth, cities were ranked on the percentage of residents that are students. Krakow at 22%, Brno (16%) and Graz (16%) were the most student-dense cities. 

Population aside, each city’s top-performing establishment and how high it features on the 2022 Times Higher Education World University rankings were also considered.

New York City ranks 11, Zurich comes in at 15 and London and Toronto place joint 18 as the cities where entrepreneurs are most likely to find the smartest and most qualified employees to hire.

The survey took daily desk rental rates as a guide to office costs, and found that Aarhus was number one at just €5.02, followed by Stockholm at €5.17 and Montreal at €8.61. Most expensive? Singapore (€44.80), Zurich (€33.60), and New York (€30.14). 

The survey also analysed average broadband download speeds and the number of cafes per resident to find where in the world is most accommodating for new, agile businesses.

Singapore (256.03 Mbps), Prague (145.3 Mbps) and Bergen (120.1 Mbps) emerged as the fastest, while those setting up in Cork, Prague or Espoo are the least likely to have to wait too long in queues for a caffeine fix, due to these cities boasting the highest number of coffee shops per resident.

The full Startup Cities Report can be found here.