A succession of expanding businesses, new facility openings, thousands of jobs added and dedicated efforts by economic developers statewide helped Kentucky place third nationally in the 2015 Business Climate Ranking by Site Selection magazine, Gov. Steve Beshear’s office announced today.
Kentucky leapt from eighth place last year – the largest increase of any state in the 2015 Ranking – to achieve its highest position ever.
Since January 2008, we announced nearly 2,300 new or expanding facilities, bringing more than 86,000 jobs and a total investment of $19.2 billion into Kentucky,” Beshear said. “From Kentucky’s automotive-related manufacturing to our thriving aerospace industry to our world-renowned bourbon distilleries, business leaders recognize the Bluegrass State as a premier location for commerce and this ranking by Site Selection magazine underscores that fact.”
As revealed in the November 2015 issue of the magazine, the results are based in part on a survey of corporate real estate executives, who considered existing workforce skills, state and local taxes, transportation and utility infrastructure, and land/building prices and supply as the most important factors.
Kentucky placed first in the ranking’s new plants-per-capita category, which measured 2015 through August, and ranked fourth in the 2014 new plants-per-capita category. Overall, only two points separated third-place Kentucky (582) from second-place North Carolina (584). Georgia took first place with 601 points.
Within the Business Climate Ranking’s methodology, 50 percent is based on a survey of corporate site selectors who are asked to rank the states based on their recent experience of locating facilities in them. The other 50 percent is based on an index of seven criteria: performance in Site Selection’s annual Competitiveness ranking; total New Plant Database compliant facilities in 2014; total new facilities in 2014 per capita; total 2015 new projects year to date; total 2015 projects year to date per capita; state tax burdens on mature firms and on new firms according to the Tax Foundation and KPMG Location Matters analysis.
Site Selection magazine, published by Conway Inc., delivers expansion planning information to 48,000 executives of fast-growing firms. The senior publication in the development field, Site Selection is also available via Site Selection Online.
