As the COVID-19 pandemic surpasses one year, its economic disruptions have been felt acutely by workers in cities around the world, though some locations have had remarkably different experiences. The effects of the economic downturn have been exacerbated by high costs of living in some metro areas, while other cities’ local economies (particularly those with high-tech industries) have demonstrated greater resilience and even started down the path of recovery.
 

The Milken Institute’s Best-Performing Cities Index, published annually since 1999, provides a tool for understanding how the future of work is shifting across different regional economies throughout the United States. This year’s version incorporated new measures of housing affordability and broadband access to account for economic inclusion.
 

How did these trends influence the rankings in 2021? What lessons can the best-performing US cities offer their counterparts? And how do US cities compare with other cities around the globe?