Northwest Arkansas No. 3 on Forbes List
by May 26, 2003 12:00 am 83 views
Forbes magazine ranked Northwest Arkansas as No. 3 on its list of “Best Small Places for Business and Careers,” which appeared on its Web site on May 12.
The magazine listed the area as “Fayetteville,” but with a population of 322,000, the study obviously included Springdale, Rogers, Bentonville and the rest of Benton and Washington counties as part of the metropolitan area.
The five-year figures showed Northwest Arkansas ranked No. 2 in job growth (up by 4 percent, compared to 1.2 percent for the nation), No. 2 in income growth (up 7.3 percent, compared to 2.9 percent for the entire United States) and No. 9 in net migration (up 1.9 percent, compared to 0.4 percent). Those rankings are among 168 “small places.”
On this year’s list, Northwest Arkansas ranked No. 35 in terms of cost of doing business, No. 45 in housing affordability, No. 68 in educational attainment, No. 40 in residents with advanced degrees and No. 25 in crime rate.
Sioux Falls, S.D., ranked No. 1 on the “Best Small Places” list. Iowa City ranked No. 2.
The magazine also ranked Little Rock as No. 21 out of 150 on its list of the “Best Places for Business and Careers.”
This is the fifth year the magazine has compiled the lists, which examine cities’ labor pools and the cost of office space, taxes and energy. The list including Little Rock will appear in the magazine’s May 26 edition. Austin, Texas, ranked No. 1 on the list of large metropolitan areas.