North Carolina dropped one place but remained in the top 10 of WalletHub’s 2024 list of the nation’s top state economies. N.C. ranked eighth, behind Florida and ahead of the District of Columbia, after being No. 7 the year before.
WalletHub used 28 measures to determine each state’s economic performance and strength, and compiled those into three main ranked categories: economic activity, economic health and innovation potential. North Carolina ranked 19th in economic activity, fifth in economic health and 11th in innovation potential, and the state finished with a total score of 55.08.
North Carolina was the highest-ranked state overall in the Southeast and also ranked third — behind Connecticut and Hawaii — on state government surplus per capita.
WalletHub said four states — California, Texas, New York and Florida — have economies that would rank among the top 20 countries in the world.
The top 10 states in WalletHub’s overall rankings were Washington, Utah, Massachusetts, Texas, California, Colorado, Florida, North Carolina, the District of Columbia and Arizona.
Ranked 51st in the rankings was Mississippi, which also ranked last in educational attainment of recent immigrants. The rest of the bottom 10, starting with No. 50, was: Hawaii, West Virginia, Arkansas, Louisiana, Kentucky, Rhode Island, Iowa, Maine and Ohio.
First and last in some of the subcategories were:
• Change in GDP: North Dakota; Delaware
• Exports per capita: Louisiana; Hawaii
• Startup activity: Florida; West Virginia
• Unemployment rate: North Dakota; Nevada
• Change in nonfarm payrolls: Nevada; California
• Median annual household income: Virginia; West Virginia
• State government surplus per capita: Connecticut; T-48th Alaska, South Dakota, Vermont
• Average educational attainment of recent immigrants: District of Columbia; Mississippi
• Percentage of jobs in high-tech industries: Massachusetts; Arkansas
• Independent inventor patents per 1,000 (working-age population): T-1st California, Massachusetts; West Virginia
