Florida ranked as one of the country’s highest-performing state economies in the latest “Rich States, Poor States” report, placing first in the report’s backward-looking Economic Performance Ranking and 10th in its forward-looking Economic Outlook Ranking.
Published by the American Legislative Exchange Council, the report measures economic performance using three indicators over the past decade: state gross domestic product growth, non-farm payroll employment growth and absolute domestic migration.
On the backward-looking measure, Florida finished first overall. The state ranked first in absolute domestic migration with a net gain of 2,512,566 residents, third in cumulative state GDP growth at 98.30% and fourth in cumulative non-farm payroll employment growth at 24.49%.
Those results put Florida ahead of Arizona, which ranked second overall, Idaho, which ranked third, Utah, which ranked fourth, and Nevada, which ranked fifth in the performance index. The report’s data suggests Florida’s top overall finish was driven by strength across all three categories rather than by a single outlier metric, with especially strong in-migration figures distinguishing it from most other states.
The report separately ranked Florida 10th in its Economic Outlook Ranking, a forward-looking measure based on 15 state policy variables tied to taxes, labor policy, debt levels, government employment and other structural factors. On those inputs, Florida ranked first for having no state personal income tax, first for not levying an estate or inheritance tax and first for being a right-to-work state. It ranked second in personal income tax progressivity, third in public employees per 10,000 residents at 395.9 and 12th in debt service as a share of tax revenue at 3.03%.
Florida’s other rankings were more mixed. The state ranked 20th for its top marginal corporate income tax rate at 5.50%, 21st for property tax burden at $26.23, 26th for remaining tax burden at $16.15, 21st for average workers’ compensation costs at $1.00 and 19th for recently legislated tax changes at negative $1.07. It ranked lower in sales tax burden at 37th with $29.41, state minimum wage at 32nd with a $14.00 rate and tort system costs at 49th with a 3.35% figure.
The report’s historical comparison also showed Florida’s Economic Outlook Ranking moving from ninth in 2019 to seventh in 2020, second in 2021, eighth in 2022, ninth in 2023, 14th in 2024, 15th in 2025 and 10th in the 2026 edition.