With first place in the coveted CNBC America’s Best States for Business Achieving the rating is no easy feat. A state must perform above average to excellent in ten broad categories ranging from cost of living to workforce and education. Each year, the weighting of the different categories is adjusted to reflect the latest issues and trends in the economy, and for 2024, infrastructure was the most heavily weighted category, at 17% of the total score.
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While it’s a point of pride to claim the top spot, when you’ve achieved it three times in the last five years, it’s perhaps par for the course by now. The unsurprising winner of the 2024 edition was none other than Virginia. Virginia received an A grade in infrastructure alone and an A+ in education. Cost of doing business, economy, technology and innovation, business friendliness and access to capital all fell in the B- to B+ range, and the only average ratings (C+) came in cost of living, quality of life and workforce.
Virginia was able to narrowly overtake North Carolina by an incredibly narrow margin of just 3 points. Rounding out the top 5 were Texas, Georgia, and Florida. Infrastructure has been a weak spot for Virginia since 2016. Eight years ago, the state was below average at 32nd, but steadily improved and finally made it into the top 10 in 2022. Most impressive, however, was the jump from 10th place in infrastructure in 2023 to 3rd place in 2024.
Infrastructure is more important than ever for economies around the world as they still grapple with the impact of pandemic-related supply chain issues. Virginia has invested heavily through its Virginia Business Ready Sites Program and similar initiatives to improve the state’s highways and bridges, the availability of office and industrial space, the reliability of its power grid, the availability of renewable energy, and the sustainability of the state’s overall infrastructure. CNBC uses metrics such as the volume and value of goods transported by air, road, rail, and water, the availability of air travel, commute times, broadband service, and the risk of wildfires, floods, and extreme weather events, to name a few.
Business friendliness is the other area that stands out for current and prospective employers in Virginia. The state ranked 5th nationally in this popular category, which measures overall bureaucracy, trade and labor regulatory systems, hospitality, emerging industries, and litigation and liability climate. State land use regulations were a new benchmark in 2024, as were state requirements that guide AI industry development.
Northern Virginia is considered the data center capital of the world, with the lowest commercial electricity prices in the Mid-Atlantic region and attractive tax incentives for data center providers.
