When it comes to small business success, California is the not-so-golden state — at least that’s what a recent report from Dun & Bradstreet Corp. suggests, CNNMoney.com reported.

California’s small business failure rate was 69 percent higher than the national average and the worst of all the states, the report said.

On the other side of the coin, Iowa was among the five states with the lowest rate of small business failures, along with North Dakota, Vermont, Wyoming and Kansas.

North Dakota had a 67 percent lower failure rate than the national average, followed by Vermont with 47 percent, Wyoming and Iowa at 40 percent and Kansas, with 39 percent.

North Dakota, Wyoming and Iowa have all been in the top five for the past four years.

These rural states did not have the economic boom that other areas of the country had, so the fall during the recession was not so stark, said Alla Kramskaia, senior director of statistical consulting at Dun & Bradstreet Global Analytics.

Nevada was second in small business failures, with a rate 65 percent higher than the national average, followed by New Hampshire with 38 percent, Tennessee with 36 percent and Colorado with 33 percent.

Nevada and California made the list because of real estate markets hard hit by the recession, said Byron Vielehr, president of global risk and analytics at Dun & Bradstreet.

The downturn hurt Colorado’s tourism businesses and Tennessee’s manufacturing industry, Vielehr said. In fact, Tennessee has been among the five states with the worst failure rates since 2007, according to the report.