Business Facilities' Quality of Life Ranking

Article provided by Business Facilities, July 2007
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It doesn’t take looking at too many economic development Web sites touting their superior quality of life or talking to too many corporate executives involved in expanding/relocating their company to realize that an area’s quality of life is generally a notable factor in a company’s site selection process. Bottom line, where this is good quality of life, there will be happy people, and happy people means a company will have a pool of workers to choose from—and happy workers at that. On top of that, if you need to draw talent to your company’s new location, people will be more willing to relocate to an area that supports a good quality of life.

With that in mind, we decided that it was high time that Business Facilities had its own Quality of Life ranking. So, for the first time ever in Business Facilities’ rankings history, we decided to produce our own Quality of Life measure. Based on existing statistical data from a variety of sources, we compiled an extensive list of information that we felt were critical to measuring an area’s overall quality of life. Those statistics fell under the umbrella of eight primary categories that we felt covered the quality of life gamut: crime data, material well being, job security, recreation/arts availability, health, climate, education, and cost of living.

Pro-Business Climate Ranking
1. Montana
2. South Dakota
3. Wyoming
4. Utah
5. New Hampshire
6. Colorado
7. New Mexico
8. Virginia
9. Texas
10. Arizona

Best Education Climate
1. Vermont
2. Iowa
3. New Hampshire
4. North Dakota
5. Nebraska
6. Massachusetts
7. Wisconsin
8. New Jersey
9. Maine
10. Wyoming
11. Kansas
12. Connecticut
13. Minnesota
14. South Dakota
15. Rhode Island
16. New York
17. Missouri
18. Montana
19. Illinois
20. Pennsylvania

Most Educated Workforce States
1. Colorado
2. Minnesota
3. New Hampshire
4. Wisconsin
5. Pennsylvania
6. Georgia
6. Vermont
8. Utah
9. New Mexico
10. Virginia
11. Rhode Island
12. New Jersey
13. Nebraska
14. New York
15. North Dakota
16. Alaska
17. Montana
18. Maine
19. Connecticut
20. Oregon

Cost of Labor Ranking
1. South Dakota
2. Montana
3. Nebraska
4. Louisiana
5. Mississippi
6. Arizona
7. New Mexico
8. Virginia
9. South Carolina
10. New Hampshire

Quality of Life Ranking
1. South Dakota
2. New Hampshire
3. North Dakota
4. Wyoming
5. Iowa
6. Connecticut
7. Minnesota
8. Vermont
9. Nebraska
10. Massachusetts