Lancaster is the eighth best city in the UK for women to start a business

The index analysed the number of self-employed women who have started a successful business, and also the number of women employed in these cities, which shows the access to equal opportunities in employment.

The eight index points Dojo analysed to find the best places for women to set up their businesses were:

Gender pay gap in each city

Number of female employees

Number of females who are self employed.

5-year Start-up Survival Rate

Average Weekly Pay

Electricity cost by region (Pence per KWH)

Cost of Living (1 bed in city centre)

Rateable floorspace value per m2

Each element has been assigned a weighted value that contributes to the final index score. The index scores for each city were then ranked to reveal the best cities for women to start a business from.

Ranking in eighth place is Lancaster, scoring a total index score of 55 out of 100. The average weekly pay for women in the city is £569.30 and 5.1 per cent of women in Lancaster are self employed.

At LancasterUniversity, there is a society around supporting women in business, allowing female entrepreneurs to get the support they need when setting up their own business.

The full top 10 is: Chelmsford, Worcester, Carlisle, York, Derby, Hereford, Wakefield, Lancaster, St Albans and Chester.

Dojo is a UK-based card payment provider under the Paymentsense brand. They specialise in helping independent small and medium businesses take secure, reliable and fast card payments with cutting-edge contactless card machines with next-working day transfers.