PA Ranks 17 Among America's Top States For Business: CNBC

PENNSYLVANIA — Last year, Pennsylvania ranked number 17 in the business and financial news network CNBC's annual competitiveness raking.

The ranking was compiled utilizing the frequency states use attributes such as the strength of the workforce, the state of infrastructure development and the cost of doing business as selling points in their economic development materials, CNBC said.

In all, CNBC measured how well the states performed across 88 metrics in 10 categories. For the first time, child-care resources and support for emerging industries such as cryptocurrency and cannabis were included in the competitiveness rankings.

States can earn a total of 2,500 points.

At number 17, Pennsylvania moved up a bit from last year's rankings; it was ranked at number 23 in 2021.

In total, Pennsylvania accumulated 1,358 points.

What follows is a breakdown among categories:

• Workforce: 213 points
• Infrastructure: 223 points
• Cost of Doing Business: 199 points
• Economy: 106 points
• Life, Health & Inclusion: 171 points
• Technology & Innovation: 175 points
• Business Friendliness: 97 points
• Education: 117 points
• Access to Capital: 38 points
• Cost of Living: 19 points

North Carolina topped the ranking, moving up from number 2 last year. CNBC noted that's partly because "political leaders in the Tar Heel State keep managing to put partisanship aside to build the nation's strongest economy."

Rounding out the top five were Washington, Virginia, Colorado and Texas.

To determine how well the states performed, CNBC relied on publicly available federal data, but also commissioned reports from real estate and labor market data collection firms.

State economic development and financial data from each state were also used. For more, read the full methodology.