Over the years, we here at Global Trade have gone out of our way to remind small, or smaller, business owners who believe the global marketplace is only for the multi-national crowd that 97 percent of all American exporting comes from the smaller business segment.

Now, after putting together our most recent list of the 105 best U.S. cities for global trade, it’s becoming apparent that we need to similarly remind small, or smaller, cities that the global economy doesn’t just extend to cities of half a million or (much) more. Many smaller cities are finding that they can participate and prevail on the global stage.

Just look at the raw numbers as we did. There we found the likes of Peoria, Illinois, with about 115,000 residents generating more than $11 billion in exports.

But we also looked at cities that have made concerted efforts to get smarter; cities such as Huntsville, Alabama, where nearly 17 percent of workers are in STEM fields—that’s higher than San Francisco or Boston—or Fargo, North Dakota, which has seen the number of residents with bachelor degrees grow 50 percent in the last 10 years.

As you’ll see in our lists, there are lots and lots more: San Angelo, Texas, and Holland, Michigan; Ontario, California, and Asheville, North Carolina—all of them and more proving that as the big world gets smaller, smaller cities can make it big.

Best Business Environment 

Best Workforce

Emerging Cities

Employee Friendly

Export Assistance

Global Vibe

Best Infrastructure 

Most Innovative

Site Selection Assistance

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