WESTBURY, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Area Development, the premier publication covering the site location and facility planning process, recently ranked 394 MSAs across 21 economic and work force indicators, which were pulled from seven (7) data sets originating with the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Census American Community Survey, and Moody’s Analytics. Based on these rankings, the publication has announced its Leading Locations for 2017.
San Francisco-Redwood City-South San Francisco (CA) ranked first overall, followed in the remaining top-10 spots by San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara (CA), Oakland-Hayward-Berkeley (CA), Columbus (IN), Fort Collins (CO), Santa Rose (CA), Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin (TN), Elkhart-Goshen (IN), Bend-Richmond (OR), and Anaheim-Santa Ana-Irvine (CA).
Based on overall results, MSAs were ranked across nine (9) regions, as well as according to size in three city categories, big, mid-size, and small. They were also ranked within the “Prime Workforce,” “Economic Strength,” “Five-Year Growth,” and “Year-Over-Year Growth” categories, each based on selected indicators.
The overall leader in the “Economic Strength” as well as “Year-Over-Year Growth” categories was Elkhart-Goshen (IN). Napa (CA) led in the “Five-Year Economic Growth” category. San Francisco-Redwood City-South San Francisco (CA) ranked first for “Prime Workforce” and was also the overall leader among big cities (population >600,000). Fort Collins (CO) ranked first among mid-size cities (population 160,000–600,000), and Columbus (IN) led the small cities (population <160,000).
The regional leaders were Boston-Cambridge (MA) — New England; New York-Jersey City-White Plains (NY-NJ) — Mid-Atlantic; Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin (TN) — South; Savannah (GA) — South Atlantic; Columbus (IN) — Midwest; Dallas-Plano-Irving (TX) — Southwest; Grand Forks (ND-MN) — Plains; Fort Collins (CO) — Mountain; San Francisco-Redwood City-South San Francisco (CA) — Pacific.
“Economic development organizations in these Leading Locations are skilled at identifying what existing and targeted industries require to achieve success,” said Geraldine Gambale, editor of Area Development. “These MSAs have exhibited economic strength including year-over-year growth and longer-term growth, as well as the capacity to support business prosperity because of their prime workforces.”
The full report on the Leading Locations was published in the Q2/2017 issue of Area Development and posted online at http://www.areadevelopment.com/LeadingLocations2017.
Area Development is published quarterly and also maintains several highly visited websites, which can be reached through www.areadevelopment.com.
