A consumer finance site has named Kirkland among the top 20 cities in the state to start a business and seventh for the number of businesses per residents.

As part of its study, NerdWallet analyzed 126 communities in Washington with populations of at least 5,000 residents, while excluding cities with fewer than 500 businesses. A city’s overall score was based on a combination of the city’s business climate and the local economy’s health, using statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey and the U.S. Census Bureau’s Survey of Business Owners. The statistics included a city’s unemployment rate, the median average income, the percentage of businesses with paid employees and the average annual revenue per business.

According to the study, Kirkland has a 5.2 percent unemployment rate and the average businesses revenue at $1.3 million. Nearly a third (30.98 percent) of the businesses had paid employees. According to the study’s analyst, Jon Todd, the higher the percentage of businesses with employees, the higher they scored.

“Companies that hire workers rather than sole proprietors is considered healthier,” he said.

However, the study did not analyze the type of businesses that did well in the respective cities or overall. Earlier this year, NerdWallet ranked Kirkland sixth among millennial-job seekers, mainly due to the growing number of tech companies such as Google. In July, the finance site also ranked Kirkland at 91 out of 463 in a study that examined the best small cities in the country to start a business.

Other Eastside cities ranked highly in the study, with Redmond ranked first, Woodinville second, Issaquah fifth and Bellevue eighth. Kirkland ranked much higher – seventh overall – when it came to the number of businesses compared to the city’s population. According to the study, the city of 75,835 had 8,021 businesses, with an average of 17 businesses per 100 people. As part of the study, NerdWallet placed a high emphasis on the business per population ratio, making it 20 percent of the score. The percentage of businesses with paid employees contributed to 25 percent of the overall score.

Todd said the study found suburbs located near major metropolitan areas, such as Seattle, tended to score higher, especially when the cities’ residents had higher average median incomes and lower unemployment rates, which translates into greater purchasing power in the local economy. Median incomes contributed to 10 percent of the score, while unemployment rates contributed to 15 percent.

Kirkland Chamber of Commerce Director Bruce Wynn said that while the business atmosphere is friendly in the city, few spaces offer the kind of waterfront view overlooking Lake Washington like Kirkland, where Internet domain registrar GoDaddy’s recently moved and has leased several office floors.

“You can’t beat the beauty factor,” he said.

In fact, much of what inspires people to start businesses in the city is the appealing local atmosphere, according to Kirkland-based Eastside Business Association Executive Director Mario Morales.

“It’s an amazingly beautiful city,” he said. “The culture of Kirkland is much different from others. We still have that small town ‘get to know you’ type of culture. Yet, we’re becoming much more of a tourist visiting place, and also the individual and family income that comes in is something that is very attractive to most businesses. They have the money to spend.”

Wynn said part of Kirkland’s success attracting businesses has been collaboration by the city and the existing business community through the Chamber.

“There’s a lot of support mechanism in Kirkland, whether it’s through the Chamber telling a story and getting a spotlight to the economic development and having business roundtables,” he said. “You have the CEO of the largest corporations and businesses in Kirkland networking.”

He cited the Chamber’s efforts, along with other institutions in the community, to encourage entrepreneurialism. The chamber hosts monthly business luncheons, as well as the Kirkland Startup Weekend Makers Edition, where participants attempt to create a company from concept to the final pitch to potential investors within a weekend.

“I think we’re now being seen as the business roundtable, that the Chamber is kind of a connector of CEOs of the same caliber,” Wynn said. “We do startup weekends to broadcast to the wider community if you have a startup we’re going to help nurture it, (we’re) going to try to get you funding to launch it and really have your back.”

“We have more venture capitalists helping out,” he added. “Whether it be through crowd-funding or any type of financial backing. We do these startup weekends to invite the people who have the means to financially support a startup company, and some of them actually do something about that. They tend to hide in the shadows because they know everybody wants them.”

He said the community has also helped struggling companies get back up on their feet by giving them opportunities to meet with potential clients and customers.

Morales said Kirkland also benefits from two different types of people who spend their money in the city; tourists and the residents themselves. This provides the businesses, such as restaurants, with a larger customer base needed to survive over a long period of time.

“When dealing with the businesses in Kirkland, the people who come are expecting high quality and high level customer service,” Morales said. “Basically we’re spoiled. We expect that and we receive that. Businesses that don’t, won’t survive.”

The one detractor from business startups in Kirkland is the booming real estate market, which translates into higher renting prices, according to Morales, though for certain types of businesses there are enough patrons to make up for the pricey location.

“That can be a little hard on business,” he said. “But the businesses that survive here, the restaurants and art galleries in the downtown, this is where people come.

The NerdWallet study, however, didn’t place as much of an emphasis on the real estate market, with the median annual housing costs contributing to 10 percent of a city’s score, with a lower median cost contributing to a higher score.

Northwest University has recently opened a business incubator space for a combination of small businesses and entrepreneurs. The 425 Collective, located at 6710 108th Ave. NE, the co-working space appeals to smaller businesses that need area to work in but either don’t have the money to afford a bigger office in the city, or only require a certain amount of space. These small offices are wrapped around the outside of the collective, with the middle featuring individual desks for entrepreneurs.

“A lot of businesses opening up these days are basically smaller businesses that are home based, because rental properties peak pretty high,” he said. “But you’re getting more of the individual and small business folks, so it doesn’t have to be a brick and mortar.”

Local developers are also constructing affordable apartments, such as Arete at 450 Central Way. Developed by Natural and Built Environments, the apartments are priced at around $795 a month for people making under a certain income.

To learn more about the NerdWallet study, go to www.nerdwallet.com/blog/small-business/best-places-start-business-washington-2015/.