Best-Performing Cities 2026: Resilience in a Cooling Economy

Best-Performing Cities 2026: Resilience in a Cooling Economy evaluates the economic performance of 403 US metropolitan areas as growth slows and cost pressures rise. The index ranks metros across key indicators of jobs, wages, and high-tech output, providing a current snapshot of regional economic resilience in 2026.

Metropolitan areas are the driving engine of the US economy. In 2024, US real gross domestic product grew by 2.8 percent, with 94.3 percent of that growth resulting from increased economic activity in metropolitan areas. Despite growth in production, employment has decelerated while housing costs have risen, adding to the economic pressures faced by US households.

As US metro areas grapple with a cooling labor market and rising costs, the Best-Performing Cities Index offers an impartial measure of performance that policymakers, business leaders, and government officials can use to assess the economic vitality of their metros within a broader national context. The report also provides rankings for the individual components of the index, offering meaningful insights for city officials seeking to examine the underlying factors driving their metropolitan areas' performance.