Most business friendly states: all 50 states ranked
All 50 states ranked on overall build-and-operate performance across nine dimensions, the Red Tape 50 composite.
How to read this table. The first column is the Red Tape 50 composite rank, 1 (best overall performance) through 50, aggregating nine dimensions of how easy a state is to build and operate in: fiscal policy, land use, labor, growth, affordability, infrastructure, cost of business, business friendliness, and approval/permitting velocity. Each dimension column is that state's 1-50 rank on the dimension alone (1 = best), except Approval, which is a processing metric on the same scale as the map tooltips (lower = faster). A state can top the composite while ranking mid-pack on any single column. Select a state name to open its detailed profile.