Area/State Rankings
Metro Area:
- #1 ”Best Place to Raise a Family in Louisiana” (Forbes, 2009)
- #3 “Best City in Nation for Independent Filmmaking” (MovieMaker magazine, 2010)
- #4 “National Economic Development: (Site Selection magazine, 2011)
- #7 “Best Cities for Jobs” among mid-sized metropolitan areas (Forbes, 2011)
- #19 “Best Place to Raise a Family in the Nation” (Forbes, 2009)
- #20 “Top 25 Best Cities for Recent Graduates” (The Daily Beast, 2011)
Louisiana:
- #1 2010 Workforce Training Program in U.S. – Louisiana FastStart™ (Business Facilities magazine)
- #1 2010 State of the Year (Business Facilities magazine)
- #1 2010 Co-State of the Year (with Tennessee) (Southern Business and Development magazine)
- #3 2010 Governor’s Cup (ranking based on the quantity of economic development projects ) (Site Selection magazine)
- #3 High-tech Job Wage Growth (TechAmerica’s Cyberstates report, April 2010)
- #3 Destination in U.S. for filmmaking (after California and New York, since 2009)
- #4 Entrepreneurial Activity (Kaufman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity, 2010)
- #5 Strongest Governmental Ethics Laws in U.S. (Better Government Association’s 2008 Integrity Index)
- #9 2009 Top State Business Climate Rankings (Site Selection magazine)
- #16 Growth of Women-Owned Businesses 1997-2011 (American Express OPEN “State of Women-Owned Business Report,” 2011)
