Thanks to a 3% jump in employment on the year and a 1.5% increase in gross domestic product per capita, Baton Rouge is ranked as the world’s 65th-best performing economy in 2014 by the Brookings Institute in its Global MetroMonitor report.
The Global MetroMonitor report measures economic activity in the world’s 300 largest metro areas, based on employment and GDP growth. Macau, China was the world’s top-performing metro area in 2014, followed by the Turkish cities of Izmir, Istanbul and Bursa.
The highest-ranked American city on the list, at No. 38, is Austin, Texas. Among the U.S. cities on the list, only Houston (No. 39); Raleigh, North Carolina (No. 41), Fresno, California (No. 49) and Dallas (No. 63) are ranked ahead of Baton Rouge.
“The Baton Rouge Area has made great strides in the past few years, and this ranking is a strong indicator of our progress, jumping from 138 to 65th best in the world’s regional economies,” says BRAC President and CEO Adam Knapp. “BRAC continues to predict further economic growth in the coming year as the regional economy not only strengthens but diversifies.”
Along with the No. 65 overall ranking, Baton Rouge is ranked No. 141 in the world for its economic performance between 2000 and 2014, with employment growth of 1.1% and a GDP increase of 1.8% per capita over that span. See the complete report and rankings.
