The economic health of a region can be determined in large part by the number of jobs created and the salary increases residents are achieving.
Milken Institute, an economic think tank dedicated to improving lives, looked at 201 small metropolitan areas in the United States, consisting of those areas with under 260,000 in population, and ranked them for economic health. The institute took into account the number of new jobs created, technological innovation and residents’ salary increases.
These factors “give a good indication of the underlying structural performance of regional economics,” says Milken.
This year’s list has three states, California and Oregon and Utah, that earned two top 10 spots. Following are the top 10 small metropolitan areas with the best economies, in reverse order.
No. 10. Gainesville, Ga.
No. 6 Auburn-Opelika, Ala.
No. 3. San Rafael, Calif.
No. 2. College Station-Bryan, Texas
No. 1. Bend-Redmond, Ore.
The full report can be found here.
