Kentucky ranked the fourth most competitive state for business expansion activity in Site Selection's 2006 Annual Competitiveness Award.

Kentucky Receives National Acclaim

Kentucky has garnered the 4th place spot for the second year in a row in Site Selection magazine's 2006 Annual Competitiveness Award. A leading international economic development publication, Site Selection established the benchmark to measure a state economic development agency's competitiveness based on 10 business-expansion activity criteria. Kentucky has consistently ranked in the Top 10 since the inception of the award in 2003.

"States must perform well in 10 criteria related to actual business expansion activity as tracked by our New Plant database," says Mark Arend, Editor of Site Selection. "The fact that Kentucky appears near the top of the list each year is evidence that its economic development team is delivering what location decision makers are looking for."

The indexing system for determining the state rankings is set up to ensure that all states have the same opportunity at competing for the award. Categories used to calculate the ranking include per capita jobs and investment numbers for 2005, the number of top metros and micropolitans in Site Selection's 2005 rankings, rates of growth in new and expanded facilities and ranking in the annual business climate survey.

During 2005, 365 manufacturing and or supportive/service companies located or expanded in Kentucky resulting in nearly 16,700 net new jobs created. Investment was estimated at more than $1.6 billion. Year-to-date statistics for 2006 are also off to a great start with more than 5,300 new jobs and $1.4 billion in investment achieved.