CUMMING — Here’s another line for the community’s resume — Cumming has been named among the top 10 best places in Georgia to start a business.

According to an analysis from NerdWallet of 126 places in the state, Cumming came in at No. 6. It was part of an overall trend that recognized many of the top places are suburbs or small cities, including four of the top 10 sitting within 30 miles of Atlanta.

Six of the top 10, each with a population of less than 60,000, boast higher average revenues per business than Georgia’s most populous cities.

All of the places included in the report have a population of at least 5,000. Cities with less than 500 businesses were excluded, regardless of population.

Scores were based on the city’s business climate (65 percent of the overall score) and economic health (35 percent) by using data from the U.S. Census Bureau, according to NerdWallet. Factors taken into account included median annual income, median annual housing costs and the unemployment rate.

Cumming is one of the smallest cities on the list, coming after Alpharetta, Doraville, Vinings, Garden City and Dalton.

The report cited Cumming as having more businesses per 100 people than any other in the study.

“In fact, Cumming has almost as many businesses (5,251) as it does residents (5,504),” the report said.

According to the report, businesses in Cumming make an annual average of $514,252. The top five cities all reported that number between $2 million and $6 million.

Cumming’s unemployment rate was reported at 6.3 percent, with the higher ranking cities at anywhere between 2 and 8 percent.

James McCoy, president and CEO of the Cumming-Forsyth County Chamber of Commerce, noted those numbers looked only at businesses with a Cumming mailing address.

“A lot of things were excluded from that,” McCoy said. “Everything on McFarland Parkway, where there are some significant office parks.”

Much of south Forsyth has an Alpharetta mailing address, and while he did not think the south-neighboring city would lose its No. 1 ranking, McCoy said he would be interested in seeing a new study that examined geographical city limits.

“We would probably be a good bit higher,” he said.

Another key point from the analysis was that all of the top 10 cities sit along major transportation routes.

“It’s an economic reality that commerce is heavily dependent upon our ability to connect with one another,” McCoy said. “While [before] it was rivers, today it’s roads and, increasingly, data connections.”

He said the community may not realize that “the largest data backbone and data line even in the Southeast runs up Ga. 400, straight through the middle of Forsyth County.”

Cumming was followed in the list by Norcross, Jesup, Carrollton and Waycross.