North Dakota ranks No. 4 in Forbes' 10th annual Best States for Business, down two spots from last year. North Dakota has boasted the country’s most robust economy over the past five years. Texas is the only state within six percentage points of North Dakota's 8.6% annual gross state product growth since 2009. Credit the development of the Bakken oil shale fields in the western part of the state for much of that growth, as well as thriving technology and service sectors. The outlook is a bit more tempered with Moody's Analytics forecasting moderate job and income gains over the next five years.
Here are the areas North Dakota ranks highest and lowest among the 40 criteria Forbes uses to gauge the best and worst states (click here for a detailed methodology of our Best States ranking).
North Dakota’s Best Rankings
#1 Five-year net migration: 1.4%
#1 Five-year job growth: 4.7%
#1 Five-year income growth: 3.6%
#1 Five-year Gross State Product change: 8.6%
#1 Five-year average unemployment: 3.2%
#1 Five-year projected job growth (EMSI): 2.8%
North Dakota’s Worst Rankings
#49 Average temperature: 39.7
#49 Arts & Leisure index: 251 (857 is the highest)
North Dakota's Full Profile
Complete Coverage: Best States for Business
