Probably not surprising to anyone in the Orange region, but the Colour City has recently been rated as one of the top 10 best places in NSW to start a new business.

In more good news, the Central Tablelands' centre enjoyed a seven-point increase from last year's rankings, scoring highly for both available talent and cost-of-living among the top-ranked locations.

Like many other regional centres such as Dubbo and Wagga Wagga, however, we rated relatively poorly on the Business Landscape score, a measure of our distance from major population centres.

The report covered Australia's 50 largest cities, analysed to identify the best places for start-ups in 2026, with the evaluation carried out by accounting software firm, Reckon. The study covered 17 socio-economic factors in four major categories: "Talent Pool", "Business Landscape", "Internet Speed" and "Cost of Living".

Reckon also ran the same study in 2024 and 2025, allowing business owners to compare results to see how things have changed.

Orange's jump up the rankings was no fluke and reflected consistent findings that bush towns and regional centres are increasingly seen as great places to start a new enterprise, Reckon CEO Sam Allert said.

"By comparing results from 2024 through to 2026, we learned that regional areas are becoming increasingly established as attractive business hubs," Mr Allert observed.

"Whether you own a start-up or an established business, it is more important than ever that business owners keep track of the evolving climate and any factors that could impact how and where their business operates," he concluded.

For the full study, go to: www.reckon.com/au/small-business-resources/start-up-cities-2026/