Bloomberg Línea — “Entrepreneurship in Brazil is not easy” is a phrase often muttered by Brazilian entrepreneurs, and especially in these times, at the tail-end of the pandemic, with inflation remaining high, rising interest rates and Russia waging war in Ukraine, disrupting supply chains and commodity prices.
However, in a continental-sized country like Brazil, the reality for entrepreneurs may not be the same everywhere.
The 2022 ranking of the Index of Entrepreneurial Cities, drawn up by Brazil’s National Public Administration School (ENAP), with support from entrepreneurial support network Endeavor, places São Paulo (the country’s most populous city) in first place as the best location for entrepreneurship.
São Paulo ranking top is no surprise, considering the size and number of companies in the city, but the remaining nine that make up the top 10 may surprise some, with the majority located outside the Rio de Janeiro-São Paulo axis, the two biggest business centers of the country.
Florianópolis, Curitiba and Vitória occupy second, third and fourth place respectively, followed by Belo Horizonte and Porto Alegra, while three more ‘outsiders’ round out the top 10: São José dos Campos, Osasco, Joinville and Cuiabá.
Among the cities in the northeast, the first to appear in the ranking is Recife, in 18th place, while the highest-ranked northern city is Manaus, in 31st position.
The ranking was created with the objective of analyzing the business environment of the 100 most populated cities in Brazil, and shows which of them have the most favorable conditions for entrepreneurship, and why.
The index, which has been published annually since 2014, analyzes several municipal challenges to business growth, such as the time spent on procedures required to open new businesses and the rate of congestion in courts.
The Top 10:
- São Paulo
- Florianópolis
- Curitiba
- Vitória
- Belo Horizonte
- Porto Alegra
- São José dos Campos
- Osasco
- Joinville
- Cuiabá
