Amazon has promised a decision this year on where it will locate the project, which it says will eventually employ 50,000 people. After initially receiving bids from 238 locations in North America, the company pared the list to 20 finalists in January. It has said little publicly since.
In its initial request for proposals last year, the company laid out four main criteria for the new location:
- Metropolitan areas with more than 1 million people.
- A stable and business-friendly environment.
- Urban or suburban locations with the potential to attract and retain strong technical talent.
- Communities that think big and creatively when considering locations and real estate options.
Those criteria differ from our Top States study, which covers 10 categories of competitiveness, weighted based on how frequently the states use them as selling points. But within our data — and the 64 metrics we use — are some potential clues about which locations have the edge.
Of course, two of the finalists — Washington, D.C., and Toronto — are not in states, so this is no help to them. But here is what the data says about the other 18.
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