In a rare feat this year, Virginia finishes in the top half or better in each of the study’s 10 categories.
With the nation’s best education system and policies that give companies room — both literally and figuratively — to grow, Virginia is America’s Top State for Business in 2024.
This is the Old Dominion’s sixth time at the top of CNBC’s rankings, and its third win in five years — a record unmatched by any other state since the study began in 2007. In a rare feat this year, Virginia finishes in the top half or better in each of the study’s 10 categories.
In a year when infrastructure is all-important with billions of federal dollars to build new facilities, Virginia delivers the third-best infrastructure in the country, according to the CNBC study.
With 121 million people within a day’s drive, Virginia is one of America’s most accessible states. It is also one of the most accessible virtually. An estimated 70% of global internet traffic flows through Northern Virginia, with its huge concentration of data centers. While this is putting a strain on the power grid — one of the few weak spots in Virginia’s infrastructure due to reliability issues — Virginia residents and businesses can easily tap into all that internet traffic with excellent broadband connectivity.
But where Virginia’s infrastructure really shines is in the wealth of shovel-ready sites the state offers for companies that want to build fast. The state’s economic development arm has certified dozens of sites across the Commonwealth, promising that all utilities and infrastructure can be in place within 18 months.
“Virginia works really hard to listen to companies, and companies are telling us that they need these ready sites,” said Michael Dreiling, vice president of real estate solutions for the Virginia Economic Development Partnership.
The Site Selectors Guild, which gathered some of the data on site readiness for the CNBC study, said Virginia’s program is one of the most advanced and well funded of its kind in the nation.
“Those states that have had a focus on site readiness and infrastructure upgrades have really had a lot of success over the last two or three years,” said Chairman Seth Martindale.
Virginia’s education advantage
Virginia’s biggest competitive strength is its education system, ranked No. 1 in the nation in the CNBC study.
Virginia offers a wealth of higher education opportunities, including five historically Black colleges. State support for higher education has increased a healthy 28% over the past five years, according to data from the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association.
At the K-12 level, Virginia offers some of the most individualized K-12 instruction in the nation, with an average of 10.9 students per teacher last year, according to the National Education Association. That appears to be translating to solid test scores.
The CNBC study measures all 50 states across 10 categories of competitiveness, for a total of 2,500 possible points. Virginia scores 1,595 points to capture this year’s crown.
This article was originally published on July 11, 2024 on cnbc.com. Photo credit: CNBC.
