Certainty and Predictability Are the Winning States’ Hallmarks
December 3, 2020
State business climates are exceedingly competitive in 2020, if Site Selection’s latest Business Climate Ranking is any indication. For the first time ever, two states claim the top spot — Georgia, which now has an eight-year run in first place, and North Carolina, which missed tying Georgia last year by just two points. What’s more, there are two additional sets of tied states in the Top 10, Texas and South Carolina in fourth place and Alabama and Arizona in seventh.
Half the ranking is based on a survey of corporate executives and site selectors (asked to identify the states they believe to have the best business climate) and half on an index of project counts and other criteria as outlined in the methodology on page 80. Even in the executive survey, where Texas ranks first, there are two sets of tying states — North and South Carolina in second place and Utah and Virginia in eighth.