Tennessee in the Top 10 among states with the best business climate

After tying with Georgia for a first-place finish in last year’s Site Selection Business Climate Rankings, North Carolina stands alone in the top spot this year. Georgia’s eight-year run as the top state for business comes to an end, but a second-place finish means it beat 48 other states in the ranking. Tennessee ranked in 6^th place. The U.S. Southeast surges.

Texas, Ohio and Indiana round out the top five states, but the order shifts somewhat on the list of site selectors’ picks for the best business climates, which is a key piece of the index used to arrive at the overall top states. That list shows Texas in first place followed by Florida, Georgia and North Carolina in a three-way tie for second place. South Carolina places fifth. Most index components are purely objective and based on project data housed in the Conway Projects Database.

Some observations concerning the most important location criteria to site selector survey respondents: Quality of Life didn’t make this year’s Top 10, nor did Incentives. Newcomers to the 2021 list relative to last year’s are Higher Education Resources at 8th place and Land/Building Prices and Supply and Economic Development Strategy, tied for 9th.

Source: Site Selection, by Mark Arend

The East Tennessee Economic Development Agency markets and recruits business for the 15 counties in the greater Knoxville-Oak Ridge region of East Tennessee. Visit www.eteda.org

 

Published November 5, 2021