North Carolina’s economic standing ranked top ten in country

GREENVILLE, N.C. (WITN) - A new study says North Carolina’s economy is booming.

“The key thing about economic growth is you have to have people, and the other thing combined with that in North Carolina is a low cost of business, so you have low taxes and population growth,” said Josh Lewis, ENC Alliance’s President.

According to Wallethub, despite having the 9th largest population, North Carolina has the 7th best economy in the country.

“We ranked higher than our state population, which means are people produce more,” said Lewis.

North Carolina also ranked 9th or better in three of the study’s seven categories, including 3rd in government surplus and deficit per capita and 6th in gross domestic product change.

WalletHub also says North Carolina has the 4th healthiest economy overall in the country.

Although those rankings shine bright on our state, an Economics Professor at East Carolina University says there is a flip side.

“So for fiscal responsibility, one way they’ve achieved it is being less generous with their state employees, and an example is if you are a state employee hired after 2021, you no longer have healthcare benefits when you retire,” said Professor Rupp.

North Carolina was also ranked 7th in the study last year, but that was a 4-spot increase since 2021.

WalletHub tracked 28 different financial categories to conduct this study. Washington state topped the list, followed by Utah and Massachusetts.

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