Maryland Falls In Ranking Of America’s Top States For Business: CNBC

MARYLAND — Maryland fell to No. 27 in America’s Top States for Business in 2022, the business and financial news network CNBC’s annual competitiveness ranking.

Last year, Maryland ranked No. 12 in the competitiveness rankings, weighted according to the frequency states use attributes such as the strength of the workforce, the state of infrastructure development and the cost of doing business as selling points in their economic development materials, CNBC said.

In all, CNBC measured how well the states performed across 88 metrics in 10 categories. For the first time, child-care resources and support for emerging industries such as cryptocurrency and cannabis were included in the competitiveness rankings. States can earn a total of 2,500 points.

Maryland accumulated 1,285 points and average letter grades in most categories:

• Workforce: 257 points, B+
• Infrastructure: 200 points, C+
• Cost of doing business: 107 points, D
• Economy: 152 points, D+
• Life, health and inclusion: 183 points, C
• Technology and innovation: 154 points, B
• Business friendliness: 93 points, D+
• Education: 102 points, B
• Access to capital: 30 points, C+
• Cost of living: 7 points, F

North Carolina topped the ranking, moving up from No. 2 last year. CNBC noted that’s partly because “political leaders in the Tar Heel State keep managing to put partisanship aside to build the nation’s strongest economy.”

Rounding out the top five were Washington, Virginia, Colorado and Texas.

To determine how well the states performed, CNBC relied on publicly available federal data, but also commissioned reports from real estate and labor market data collection firms. State economic development and financial data from each state were also used. For more, read the full methodology.

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