RICHMOND, Va. —The Richmond area ranks as one of the nation's best business centers, according to a study released Friday by Dow Jones MarketWatch. The region finished a strong third and ahead of a number of well-known communities, including Boston , Houston , and San Francisco . The MarketWatch study identifies how well metro areas do at starting, growing and retaining businesses.

Richmond 's strong finish was due, in part, to the large number of Fortune 1000 companies per capita and the region's relatively low unemployment rate. The region ranked first and second respectively in these two categories. The Richmond area had an overall score of 287 and was one of the smallest metro areas included in the report.

MarketWatch looked at the 50 largest metropolitan statistical areas, those with population of approximately one million or more. Then they calculated various measures of business per capita, including the number of Fortune 1000, S&P 500, Russell 2000 and Forbes 400 companies, as well as the number of small businesses (500 employees or less). Other factors considered were unemployment rates, population growth and job growth.

For the full study see

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/top-10-cities-business-rest/story.aspx?guid={68F8F9F9-73A3-40DE-B7FA-C0C847F525E9}&print=true&dist=printTop