CHARLOTTE — Charlotte saw little movement in this year’s ranking of the nation’s top-performing metros for economic growth, after falling from the top 10 in 2025.
Charlotte ranked at No. 23 in the Milken Institute’s Best-Performing Cities index for 2026, up one spot from No. 24 last year. The Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia region placed at No. 10 in 2024 — its highest rank since the Milken Institute began tracking the rankings in 2012. It ranked at No. 31 in 2022.
For its Best-Performing Cities 2026: Resilience in a Cooling Economy report, the Milken Institute ranked 206 large metros and 205 small metros separately on 13 metrics in three main performance categories: labor market conditions, which includes job and wage growth; high-tech impact, which includes technology output and concentration; and access to economic opportunities, which includes housing affordability, inclusivity and resilience.
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