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SALT LAKE CITY — Two Utah cities are being recognized for their economic performance, coming in at the top of a national list of best-performing cities.
Provo was named the second best-performing city in the United States for 2013 and Salt Lake City took fifth place in the annual "Best-performing Cities" report published by Milken Institute. Austin, Texas took first place.
Researchers based the rankings on job growth, wage and salary growth, short-term job growth, high-tech GDP growth, high-tech GDP concentration and high-tech industries.
Provo was ranked the No. 1 place for job growth. It also took seventh place for short-term job growth and ninth place for high-tech GDP growth.
Researchers described Provo as a growing technology hub drawing strength from work with computer systems and educational opportunities. They also said Provo was the second-fastest growing city for patents.
Large Cities
Provo — No. 2
Salt Lake City — No. 5
Ogden — No. 26
Small Cities
Logan — No. 17
"The backbone of the metro’s thriving tech sector is Brigham Young University, which educates the workforce and participates in the commercialization of research," researchers wrote in the report.
They also cited the development of NuSkin's Innovation Center and Google Fiber as assets to the city.
Salt Lake City took fourth place for short-term job growth, 10th place for high-tech GDP growth and 11th place for the number of high-tech industries.
Researchers attributed the city's success to the University of Utah's commercialization efforts, an educated workforce and low business costs.
"Salt Lake City, Utah, consistently a top performer, edged up one position to fifth overall," researchers wrote. "Its success is based on the targeted recruitment of large, high-value-added firms (it lured several hundred Goldman Sachs positions) and on startups emerging from local universities."
Provo improved five ranking spots from the 2012 list.
Other cities in Utah also made the best-performing cities list — Logan was No. 17 for small cities and Ogden was no. 26 for large cities.
The top ten large cities:
- No. 1: Austin
- No. 2: Provo
- No. 3: San Francisco
- No. 4: San Jose, Calif.
- No. 5: Salt Lake City
- No. 6: Seattle
- No. 7: Dallas
- No. 8: Houston
- No. 9: Boulder, Colo.
- No. 10: Greeley, Colo.
