DES MOINES, Iowa — According to Forbes,Greater Des Moines is the fifth best place for business and careers.
The annual ranking compares the business climates of the 200 largest metro areas in the U.S. by population. Those metro areas are rated on 14 metrics related to job growth, cost of doing business and living, income growth, quality of life, and education of the labor force.
According to the Greater Des Moines Partnership, Des Moines’ strength in placing in the top five stems from a cost of doing business that is 15% below the national average, and Des Moines is leading the Midwest in gross domestic product, population growth, and employment growth.
Des Moines has also received other recent accolades, including #9 Best City for Quality of Life by NerdWallet, #1 Minor League Sports Market by SportsBusiness Journal, and #1 Best Place for Millennials to Live in the Midwest by Growella.
“Our businesses use this to recruit,” said Eugene Meyer, Greater Des Moines Partnership President. “We use it to promote Greater Des Moines. These rankings are due to the hard work of our businesses, our private non-profit groups, our local government, everybody working together. This is a very friendly place to do business. I think you would go talk to the Facebooks, Microsofts, Apples of the world, you know, that’s why they’re here. That’s why several other businesses have expanded here.”