Oconee County ranks tops in Georgia for small businesses

ATLANTA — Oconee County has the highest concentration of small businesses in Georgia, according to a new study from a New York-based financial technology company.

The report, compiled by SmartAsset, ranked counties based on the percentage of the county’s total tax returns filed by small business owners and the percentage of income derived from small businesses.

In Oconee County, 35.59% of tax returns are from small businesses, second only to Gwinnett’s 36.35%. Small business income accounts for 16.85% of total income in Oconee, tops on the list.

Those results gave Oconee a total score of 57.40 in the report, easily the best.

Except for Oconee, the 10 top counties for small businesses in Georgia are located either in metro Atlanta, along Interstate 20 east of the metro region or in the North Georgia mountains.

Here is the top 10 list from the SmartAsset study:

County Small business returns, Small business income Score

Oconee — 35.59% 16.85% 57.40

Fulton — 34.99% 12.98% 53.60

Gwinnett — 36.35% 10.20% 53.19

Greene — 33.45% 12.39% 51.15

Morgan — 33.30% 10.82% 49.71

Fannin — 32.59% 10.48% 48.54

Cobb — 32.91% 9.80% 48.42

DeKalb — 33.50% 8.35% 48.05

Forsyth — 31.30% 9.95% 46.44

Source: SmartAsset

File Photo