Where should you start a business if you’re Gen Z?
Tuesday 10th May 2022
One of the key characteristics of Generation Z is entrepreneurship, which means as more of this generation make their first steps into the world of work, many will have aspirations of launching their own business.
The UK is home to a bunch of great cities, each with their own different qualities - but where should members of Gen Z be eyeing up to launch their business? We’ve carried out our own research to look into it.
We have analysed a number of different factors around startups and Generation Z, including average age, start up and business closure rate, house prices, average earnings and internet speed, as well as TikTok stats and environmental issues to determine the best city for Britain’s young business superstars to launch their new venture in.
London takes the top spot
Our study found that London is the number one city in the UK for Generation Z to launch a business, with an index score of 163 out of 210. Although it has more business closures and the most expensive housing, it came top for its business start up rate as well as scoring highly across average weekly salary, carbon emissions and has one of the youngest average ages in the UK. It also has more TikTok views than any other city, making it the perfect place for Generation Z to launch a business.
Cambridge narrowly misses out on first place
Cambridge has the second youngest average age, as well as some of the highest average earnings and fastest internet, but all of this wasn’t quite enough to put it into first place. The university town scored 161, just two points behind London, but that was enough to pip its rival, Oxford, into the top two.
The best city to start a business in if you’re Generation Z:
City | Total | Cumulative TikTok views since 2017 | Co2 emissions per capita | ||||||
London | 163 | 36.5 | 95.58 | 83.15 | 637568.81 | 664.59 | 76.4 | 31.1 billion | 3.39 |
Cambridge | 161 | 35.4 | 53.56 | 43.57 | 531643.94 | 657.16 | 80.8 | 20.9 billion | 3.92 |
Derby | 155 | 38 | 42.83 | 32.71 | 200937.73 | 511.68 | 78.2 | 4.3 billion | 4.15 |
Oxford | 154 | 34.4 | 38.92 | 34.96 | 540572.69 | 564.24 | 79.2 | 2.9 billion | 4 |
Glasgow | 146 | 39.5 | 38.93 | 35.89 | 181601.63 | 558.06 | 75.5 | 1.9 billion | 4.01 |
Manchester | 146 | 37.8 | 61.75 | 48.54 | 240013.13 | 500.53 | 77.2 | 1.7 billion | 4.2 |
Liverpool | 143 | 38.2 | 50.84 | 42.42 | 171859.88 | 488.87 | 75.2 | 1.4 billion | 4.02 |
Southampton | 139 | 37.6 | 66.3 | 54.2 | 286088.63 | 532.86 | 74.3 | 1.4 billion | 3.32 |
Birmingham | 137 | 37.6 | 52.24 | 49.25 | 244617.36 | 486.24 | 75.8 | 875.9 million | 3.85 |
Bradford | 136 | 36.7 | 41.97 | 34.03 | 185035.31 | 462.73 | 73.1 | 772.7 million | 3.79 |
Coventry | 133 | 36.2 | 41.51 | 35.71 | 216295.47 | 521.07 | 73.8 | 690.7 million | 3.4 |
Reading | 132 | 37.8 | 54.76 | 59.69 | 429643.19 | 672.53 | 77.2 | 641.5 million | 3.71 |
Edinburgh | 130 | 38.7 | 42.36 | 51.46 | 274825.34 | 592.05 | 76.6 | 548 million | 4.01 |
Cardiff | 130 | 36.7 | 46.05 | 39.27 | 271084.75 | 487.84 | 81.4 | 407.4 million | 4.43 |
Newcastle upon Tyne | 125 | 39.8 | 37.29 | 31.08 | 188799.59 | 496.16 | 75.5 | 393.8 million | 4.15 |
Leeds | 125 | 37.6 | 52.02 | 46.44 | 249065.63 | 523.42 | 74.7 | 391.7 million | 4.89 |
Bristol | 122 | 37.7 | 50.29 | 42.59 | 350911.19 | 528.99 | 75.3 | 376.2 million | 4.19 |
Portsmouth | 121 | 40.3 | 44.28 | 37.82 | 299827.34 | 512.57 | 77.9 | 371.3 million | 3.35 |
Nottingham | 121 | 38.2 | 37 | 31.89 | 216702.11 | 478.9 | 78.5 | 366.8 million | 4.06 |
Plymouth | 116 | 39.4 | 36.34 | 25.88 | 215833.97 | 424.44 | 76.1 | 294 million | 3.29 |
Sheffield | 111 | 38.9 | 39.39 | 30.67 | 209085.69 | 479.92 | 74.7 | 255 million | 4.48 |
Norwich | 109 | 40.7 | 44.14 | 36.67 | 279008.38 | 515.15 | 76.5 | 246.9 million | 4.33 |
Preston | 109 | 39.9 | 52.53 | 40.1 | 196368.98 | 489.32 | 77 | 220.4 million | 5.43 |
Sunderland | 104 | 41 | 39.24 | 24.84 | 144261.72 | 420.56 | 75.7 | 162 million | 4.24 |
York | 99 | 39.6 | 37.2 | 31.52 | 317644.28 | 522.25 | 65.9 | 160.6 million | 3.83 |
Stoke-on-Trent | 99 | 39.6 | 38.32 | 28.09 | 152979.8 | 460.68 | 76.4 | 146.5 million | 5.12 |
Swansea | 96 | 41 | 37.98 | 30.95 | 182515.41 | 463.78 | 76.9 | 92.2 million | 21 |
Blackpool | 93 | 43.2 | 48.5 | 39.16 | 175766.89 | 455.36 | 74.5 | 62.3 million | 4.35 |
Doncaster | 89 | 40.5 | 56.59 | 39.8 | 162688.11 | 483.23 | 72.2 | 35.6 million | 6.43 |
Aberdeen | 76 | 38.9 | 38.85 | 46.7 | 186123.53 | 494.88 | 72.3 | 5.2 million | 5.05 |
Which cities are most popular on TikTok?
Generation Z is more prevalent on TikTok than any other group and meeting other content creators could be an important factor for those launching a new business. These are the most popular cities on TikTok, ranked by number of views:
- London: 31.1 billion
- Liverpool: 20.9 billion
- Manchester: 4.3 billion
- Birmingham: 2.9 billion
- Glasgow: 1.9 billion
- Newcastle upon Tyne: 1.7 billion
- Derby: 1.4 billion
- Leeds: 1.4 billion
- Edinburgh: 875.9 million
- Bradford: 772.7 million
Generation Z care more about social issues like climate change than previous generations
The study also looked at each city's carbon emissions, based on the fact that social issues like climate change are more important to Generation Z than older generations. Three cities on the South coast all have lower carbon emissions than the rest of the UK: Plymouth, Southampton and Portsmouth.
- Plymouth: 3.29
- Southampton: 3.32
- Portsmouth: 3.35
- London: 3.39
- Coventry: 3.4
- Reading: 3.71
- Bradford: 3.79
- York: 3.83
- Birmingham: 3.85
- Cambridge: 3.92
Methodology
We analysed seven different factors across 30 UK cities including average age, GDP, business start up and closure rate, average weekly earnings, mean house price, TikTok views and carbon emissions. Each city was given a score between 1 and 30 for each category with the scores across all categories added together to provide an overall index score out of 210.
To view the raw data, click here.
