The Best-Performing Cities in America

For more than 25 years, the Milken Institute has looked at which cities across America do the best job at leveraging the resources they have to spur economic growth and get their residents on the fast track to success. Using the latest data from 2023, the nonprofit think tank puts the North Carolina capital Raleigh at the top of this year's list of the best-performing large cities in the nation out of 200, with the institute citing "high levels of employment growth and wage growth over the last five years." The 12 best-performing large metropolitan areas in America (use the institute's neat interactive map to compare cities):

1. Raleigh (North Carolina)
2. Ogden-Clearfield (Utah)
3. Salt Lake City
4. Huntsville (Alabama)
5. Colorado Springs (Colorado)
6. Austin-Round Rock (Texas)
7. Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers (Arkansas/Missouri)
8. Olympia-Tumwater (Washington)
9. Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville (Florida)
10. Boise (Idaho)
11. Charleston-North Charleston (South Carolina)
12. Myrtle Beach-Conway-North Myrtle Beach (South Carolina/North Carolina)

Check out more here, including the best-performing small cities in America. (This is the nation's greenest city.)