Where The Millennials (Should) Roam

For the 2016 Best States project, CRN looked at the best and worst states for millennials to consider when starting a solution provider business. The analysis included a range of criteria that were of specific interest to millennials, including quality of life and cost of living factors.

Data included a state's quality of life (CNBC America's Top States for Business 2016), gasoline tax rates (American Petroleum Institute & Tax Foundation), median rent on a two-bedroom apartment (Apartmentlist.com), policies and incentives for renewables and efficiencies (Database of State Incentives for Renewables and Efficiency), median ages (U.S. Census Bureau), and availability of public transportation (Center for Neighborhood Technology's AllTransit Performance Score).

Also included in the analysis were business factors such as startup rates (2015 Rate of New Entrepreneurs – Kauffman Index Startup Activity by State), venture capital availability (Nerdwallet: Most Entrepreneurial States), and rankings for tech industry employment, tech business establishments and average tech wage (CompTIA Cyberstates Report).

The following are the 10 states with the overall highest rankings for the "millennial factors," listed from No. 10 to No. 1. The states with the overall lowest rankings are then listed from No. 41 to No. 50. We’ve also included some the more interesting data points.