Owning the recognition

Dallas deemed No. 4 county in U.S. for small businesses, says study

Dallas is a great place to start a small business.

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Small businesses are often called the backbone of the U.S. economy. Well, if that’s the case, then Dallas County might be the spinal cord of small business in Texas.

Personal finance website Smart Asset ranks Dallas County the best place in Texas for small business owners. Nationally, Dallas County lands at No. 4.

To come up with its list, the website examined federal data to zero in on three factors: the number of small businesses operating in each county, how much income they generate, and what they pay in taxes.

Smart Asset then weighed each set of data to develop an index score, with 100 being the top number. Dallas County earned a score of 94.26 on the 100-point scale. It didn’t appear in Smart Asset’s Texas or national top 10 last year.

The Smart Asset study mostly aligns with other recent rankings for North Texas. For instance:

In March, personal financial website ValuePenguin picked Dallas-Fort Worth as the country’s sixth best place for small businesses.
A LendingTree study released in October put DFW at No. 19 among the best places in the U.S. to start a small business.
Fort Worth ranked ninth and Dallas ranked 14th on an April list from personal finance website WalletHub of the best places in the country to start a business.

According to Dallas Economic Development, nearly 80 percent of businesses in Dallas are small businesses, and they employ almost 40 percent of the city’s workers.

“Small businesses account for a significant number of jobs and play a key role in growing tax revenue. Small business is fundamental to workforce development, especially in minority, immigrant, and under-educated … communities,” the economic development agency says.

Courtesy of Smart Asset, here’s the rest of this year’s top 10 counties in Texas for small business owners:

Galveston County (Houston metro area), No. 2 in the state and No. 5 nationally.
Haskell County (north of Abilene), No. 3 in the state and No. 6 nationally.
Titus County (east of Sulphur Springs), No. 4 in the state and No. 8 nationally.
Matagorda County (east of Victoria), No. 5 in the state and No. 9 nationally.
Goliad County (west of Victoria), No. 6 in the state (not in national top 10).
Glasscock County (east of Midland), No. 7 in the state (not in national top 10).
Stonewall County (northwest of Abilene), No. 8 in the state (not in national top 10).
Brooks County (north of McAllen), No. 9 in the state (not in national top 10).
Midland County (Midland metro area), No. 10 in the state (not in national top 10).

lists rankings

educational excellence

3 Dallas schools named top colleges for 2027 by The Princeton Review

University of Texas at Dallas graduation regalia

The University of Texas at Dallas/Facebook

The University of Texas at Dallas is one of the top 50 best value public colleges for 2027.

Back-to-school season is has returned in full force, and that means it's time for college rankings. Three Dallas universities — Southern Methodist University, The University of Texas at Dallas, and the University of Dallas — are being hailed top of the class for 2027.

The three Dallas-area schools earned new acclaim in The Princeton Review's new ranking of the "Best 392 Colleges" for 2027. Across town, Texas Christian University in Fort Worth also earned high praise.

The Princeton Review's 35th annual "Best Colleges" rankings are determined by a survey of 172,000 current college students that gave "candid feedback" about their schools and their experiences. The flagship guide does not rank the schools overall, but it does rank them across 50 different categories, including best-run colleges, best quality of life, happiest students, best athletic facilities, among others.

Schools don't pay to be included in the guide, but The Princeton Review clarified that schools could pay for a "featured" designation. No Dallas-Fort Worth school paid to be featured in this year's guide.

In addition to being included in the overall list, Southern Methodist University was highlighted in the regional Best Southwest list that contained 41 universities across Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas.

"This mid-size private university provides 'a wealth of academic resources...[and] a flood of opportunities for those who want them,' allowing SMU to lead the way for the Dallas-Fort Worth area in developing innovative industries and initiatives in semiconductors, biotechnology, clean energy, precision medicine, and AI," the university's profile says.

This is how the other Dallas schools shined in The Princeton Review's guide:

University of Dallas, Irving

Best Value Colleges
Best Southwest
The Best 392 Colleges
No. 2 – Most Religious Students
No. 5 – LGBTQ-Unfriendly (based on "how strongly students disagree that their fellow students treat all persons equally, regardless of their sexual orientation and gender identity/expression")
No. 6 – Most Politically Conservative Students
No. 15 – Professors Get High Marks
No. 17 – Happiest Students
No. 24 – Pot's Not Hot (a ranking of colleges with the "least marijuana usage based on ratings from real students about the popularity of marijuana on campus.")

University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson

Best Value Colleges
Best Southwest
Green Colleges (colleges that "share superb sustainability practices, a strong foundation in sustainability education, and a healthy quality of life for students on campus.")
The Best 392 Colleges
No. 3 – Top 20 Best Public Schools for Internships
No. 3 – Top Undergraduate Schools for Entrepreneurship Studies in the Southwest
No. 21 – Top 50 Undergraduate Schools for Entrepreneurship Studies
No. 40 – Top 50 Best Value Public Colleges

universities dallas university of dallas university of texas at dallas southern methodist university the princeton review rankings

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educational excellence

3 Dallas schools named top colleges for 2027 by The Princeton Review