New Hampshire ranks 35th in national business-friendliness rankings
A newly released list from CNBC doesn’t contain very good news for New Hampshire and its self-image as a business-friendly state.
In its rankings of “America’s Top States for Business 2022,” the cable business news channel puts New Hampshire firmly among the lower third of states, ranking the Granite State at No. 35.
CNBC said it scored the states using on 88 metrics in 10 categories of competitiveness, with each category weighted based on how frequently the states use them as a selling point in economic development marketing materials. In a note, the channel says the study “is not an opinion survey” because it uses “data from a variety of sources to measure the states’ performance.”
All of the ranks New Hampshire received in the different categories were mediocre or worse, except for three – the state was ranked sixth for Business Friendliness, eighth for Education, and 15th in the Life, Health & Inclusion category.
Other New Hampshire rankings in the separate categories were:
- Workforce: 22
- Infrastructure: 47
- Cost of Doing Business: 32
- Economy: 29
- Technology & Innovation: 39
- Business Friendliness: 6
- Access to Capital: 48
- Cost of Living 37
As for the top of the rankings, North Carolina was No. 1, followed by Washington state. In New England, the highest ranking was Massachusetts’ 24th, by Vermont was 31st, Connecticut 39th, Maine 43rd and Rhode Island 45th.
