The Sunshine State has again ranked in the top 5 for best places to do business, according to CNBC’s annual America’s Top States for Business rankings.
This year, Florida moved up two spots, from No. 5 last year to No. 3, driven largely by the state’s booming economy.
Florida ranked first in the nation for its economy, and second for its workforce. Also driving its strong showing is the state’s access to capital, at No. 3 in the nation.
But Florida has room for improvement when it comes to cost of living. The state earned an “F” in that category, and landed at No. 48 in the nation. Costs in Florida are elevated largely due to the ongoing insurance crisis plaguing the hurricane-prone state, as well as strong population growth creating a supply crunch.
The state’s education system also ranked fairly low, at No. 29 in the nation.
North Carolina earned this year’s top overall ranking for business, followed by Texas at No. 2. The Lone Star State lost ground on quality of life, ranking second-to-last in the nation.
CNBC has been conducting the ranking for 19 years. The analysis looks at 10 categories of competitiveness across 135 metrics to assign a score, which is then ranked from highest to lowest.
Florida earned a total of 1,588 points out of 2,500 possible. That’s a just 26-point difference from top-scoring North Carolina, which earned 1,614 points. In second place, Texas was just 13 points behind North Carolina.
It’s worth noting that, in the top five, all but one state — North Carolina — are led by Republican Governors. In the top 10, only three states are run by Democratic Governors.
At the bottom of this year’s rankings are Alaska (No. 50) and Hawaii (No. 49). Alaska’s bottom-of-the-barrel showing is largely due to its dependency on oil as its crude prices are down 12%, putting the state dead last in the economy category.
Hawaii, meanwhile, posted the nation’s highest cost of doing business and second-highest cost of living.
