Doing Business North America

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What is Doing Business North America?

The Doing Business North America report provides objective measures of business regulations in the United States across 83 cities in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and Washington, D.C. Comprised of over 7,700 datapoints, it uses 93 variables to create 30 data indicators spread over six categories to score and rank cities in regard to how easy it is to set up, operate, and shut down a business.

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Why is this report important now?

Over the years, researchers have begun to understand how robust measurement and ranking of regulations that either enhance business activity or constrain it can provide substantial insight into economic outcomes. Objective measurements of those regulations have been vital in this understanding. Unlike many studies that measure regulations at the state level, this annual study measures the impact at the city level and does so for dozens of municipal jurisdictions across North America.

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Provides measurable benchmarks

This report provides objective measurements of regulatory conditions and make them publicly-available to researchers and policymakers.

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Encourages competition

This report allows researchers and policymakers to track the improvement or decline in local regulatory conditions and provide a context for thinking about policy reform.

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Increases economic well-being

The measures can help contribute to the understanding of which regulatory environments can produce the best economic outcomes for the largest number of people.

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How is the data categorized?

This report collects data on 93 variables within the following six categories:

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Explore the data sets

The Doing Business North America team collected data on 93 different regulatory and economic variables across six different categories. The data collected came entirely from official and publicly-available sources.

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View 2022 Report

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