Top Rankings

Greater Fort Lauderdale Rankings

• Greater Fort Lauderdale has been named the 2nd best business climate in the country for mid-sized metro for the fourth year in a row in 2024 - Business Facilities Magazine (Business Facilities Magazine's 2021-2024 Annual Rankings Report)

• Broward County’s economy ($163B GDP) is stronger than 15 states in the United States and the 60th largest in the world – BEA 2023 Data

• Fort Lauderdale has been named one of the 4 Top 100 Best Places to live by Livability.com four years in a row - Livability.com

• Broward County Public Schools was named an A-Rated Schoold District by the Florida Department of Education (2024)

• Fort Lauderdale was ranked as a leading “Magnet:18-hour City” for the third year in a row alongside Charlotte, Denver, Minneapolis, Portland, Salt Lake City, and San Diego - Urban Land Institute (ULI) and PWC 2024 Emerging Trends in Real Estate Report

• South Florida was designated a ClimateReady Tech Hub, one of 32 tech hubs in the U.S. by the U.S. Economic Development Administration (2024)

• Area Development, a highly respected publication for site consultants and corporate location decision makers, named Greater Fort Lauderdale (South Florida MSA)

  • #4 Best MSA in the country out of 383 metro areas of all sizes
  • #2 Best Giant MSA behind only the Salt Lake City area, ahead of places like Austin, Denver, Nashville and Dallas-Fort Worth
  • #1 Best MSA in the "South Atlantic" Region

• If South Florida were a country, it would be the 26^th largest economy in the world, with a $533.7 billion GDP, larger than Austria and Thailand. (BEA, United Nations Estimates 2023 GDP, Current dollars).

• Fort Lauderdale was recently named by Rent.com as the top city in South Florida for remote work (Top 25 in the country). (South Florida Business Journal, May 2023). 
  
  
• Fort Lauderdale ranked #1 spot in the nation for holiday 'workcation' for the second year in a row according to CoworkingCafe. (South Florida Business Journal, Dec 26, 2023)

• Greater Fort Lauderdale/South Florida MSA is one of the top startup hubs in the US (#4) and the fastest growing in the top 5 with an 89% increase from 2021/2022 compared to 2016/2017. (Stripe’s 2022 annual letter, April 2023)
  
  
• Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL) ranked #11 in the U.S. for international traffic in 2022 (Airports Council International - North America)
   
• Greater Fort Lauderdale/South Florida CSA is the #1 Destination for Relocating Homebuyers (Redfin user search data, June 2022)
   
• Greater Fort Lauderdale/South Florida MSA ranks in the top five Cyberstates 2022 for:  (CompTIA, March 2022)
  •        1st Diversity Index Quartile
  • 4th net tech employment job gains
  • 5th tech business establishments growth           
• West Broward ranked #1 in State for VC-Backed Jobs (SFBJ/Venture capital Report, March 2022)
                
• Greater Fort Lauderdale/South Florida MSA named one of tech's "rising star" metro areas (Brookings Analysis, March, 2022).
  
  
• Adults between 19 and 44 years old represent 53% of the total inbound migration into South Florida from outside the State, while Retirees (Adults 65 and older) only account for 12.5%. (U.S. Censuse Bureao "Geographical Mobility in the past year bye age for Current Residence in the U.S. 2022 ACS 1-yr estimates- Origin outside of Florida)
          
• Greater Fort Lauderdale is the fastest growing metro based on net population inflows (LinkedIn Research - December 2021)  

• Greater Fort Lauderdale named #1 for School Quality by Fordham Institute  (America's Best and Worst Metro Areas for School Quality - December 2021)             

• Broward County was honored as #7 in FTZ Activity (Exports).  (Business Facilities Magazine's 17th Annual Rankings Report., July/August 2021)
  
  
• Greater Fort Lauderdale/South Florida metro ranked #1 in the U.S. for largest migration changes of software and IT workers (Axios/LinkeIn 2021)  

• BCPS High Schools Named Among the Best High Schools in America  by U.S. News & World Report  (May, 2021)
  • Pompano Beach High and McFatter Technical High rank in the top 2% of schools in the nation
  • Five BCPS high schools rank among the top 5% in the nation – Atlantic Technical, Cypress Bay, McFatter Technical High, Pompano Beach High and Sheridan Technical High. 
  • Fifteen BCPS high schools rank in the top 20% of high schools in the nation.
  • Most improved among BCPS high schools is Lauderhill 6-12, which advanced 3,200 spots over the past year, landing in the top 7.5% of all schools nationally. 
    
    
• Greater Fort Lauderdale ranked in one of the top 10 markets where people are moving during the pandemic (LinkedIn Research - April 2021)
  
  
• CBRE has named South Florida as one of the next ten tech markets to watch (Tech 30 – Measuring the Tech Industry’s Impact on U.S. & Canada Office Markets, 2020)
  

Florida Rankings

• Florida's 1.74 Trillion economy has the 2nd fastest growth rate in the U.S. - Florida Chamber, Florida by the Numbers 4.1.2025

• Florida ranked #1 U.S. State for higher education 8 years in a row – U.S. News and World Report

• Florida ranked #1 U.S. State for attracting and developing talent – Lightcast Talent Attraction Scorecard (Dec 2023)

• Florida ranked #2 in the nation among states in which to do business – Chief Executive Magazine 2024

• Florida ranked #2 U.S. State for net talent migration and regional competitiveness – Lightcast Talent Attraction Scorecard (Dec 2023)

• Florida ranked #1 U.S. State for new Tech Business Establishments in 2023 – CompTIA State of Tech Workforce 2024

• Florida ranked #2 U.S. State for Net Tech Employment Job Gains in 2023 – CompTIA State of Tech Workforce 2024

• Florida ranks as the best state economy in 2023 according to the CNBC's annual America's Top States for Business study (These 10 states are running America's best economies for residents, July 2023)   

• The State of Florida ranked #2 in Chief Executive Magazine's 2023 Annual CEO Survey of the Best and Worst States for Business. (April 2023) 
  
  
• Florida ranked #1 State for Talent Attraction and #4 for overall Job Growth (+4.28% between 2017 and 2021) according to the 2022 Talent Attraction Scorecard Report. (Talent Attraction Scorecard - Lightcast October 2022)
  
  
• State of Florida ranked #1 for business startups in the country in 2022 with nearly 650,000 business applications, a 69% increase in the past three years. (Thefloridascorecard.org - US Census Bureau, Business Formation Statistics)