Site Consultants Rank NC a Top 5 State for Doing Business

Leading site consultants once again rank North Carolina among the top five states in the nation for doing business, according to an Area Development magazine survey.

The site selection and facility planning publication this week announced the results of its 2020 nationwide survey. For the second year in a row, North Carolina came in at No. 5.

“Area Development polls selected site consultants who are responsible for their clients’ decisions that result in new location or expansion for hundreds of projects each year, billions of dollars in capex, and millions of square feet in new construction, but most importantly creating thousands of new U.S. jobs,” said Dennis J. Shea, president and publisher.

North Carolina consistently places among the top-tier states in well-regarded business rankings, whether the list is based on perception surveys or data analysis. North Carolina, for example, has remained Forbes’ No. 1 best state for business for three years running, a ranking based on measures of costs, labor supply, regulatory environment, current economic climate, growth prospects and quality of life.

Area Development’s annual survey asked a select group of consultants who work with a nationwide client base to name their top state choices in 13 categories that impact companies’ location and facility plans. The states were then ranked based on their number of mentions in each category.

In the latest survey, site consultants ranked North Carolina particularly well in competitive labor environment (No. 2), energy availability and costs (No. 3), site readiness programs (No. 3), cooperative and responsive state government (No. 4), available real estate (No. 4), overall cost of doing business (No. 5), workforce training programs (No. 6), corporate tax structure (No. 7), and favorable regulatory environment (No. 7).

Southern states dominated the survey’s overall top 10 states to do business, which were, in order: Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina, Texas, North Carolina, Alabama, Indiana, Virginia, Ohio, and Florida.

Area Development’s full review of its Top States for Doing Business survey is available here.