Kane County is punching above its weight in the national business arena, landing at No. 17 in Site Selection magazine’s latest America’s Best Counties ranking. The list tracks where real corporate expansion projects are actually moving from pitch to shovels in the ground, and local officials say the showing reflects a steady stream of manufacturing, distribution and data center wins reshaping the suburban economy.
As reported by Shaw Local, the ranking counts corporate facility projects completed between January 2025 and March 2026 and puts Kane alongside only one other Illinois county in the top 20. County leaders highlighted a series of recent industrial and logistics announcements in a celebratory release, pointing to those deals as the engine behind the strong placement.
How the ranking is calculated
Site Selection builds its list from qualifying projects in Conway Data’s Projects Database and weighs three main factors: project counts, capital investment and jobs created. The methodology focuses on activity that moved into construction or operation in the January 2025 through March 2026 window, so places that converted deals quickly rose in the standings. For a detailed breakdown of the approach, see Site Selection.
Local reaction and strategy
County Board Chair Corinne Pierog said in a county release that the ranking reflects “the infrastructure, workforce and quality of life needed to succeed,” language published by Shaw Local. The newly formed Kane County Economic Development Corporation is positioning itself as a one-stop shop for site selectors, with an eye toward making it easier to evaluate sites and move projects from initial inquiry to ribbon cutting.
Projects behind the rank
The deals that pushed Kane into the national top 20 are mostly familiar, but there are more of them and they are getting bigger: distribution warehouses, factory expansions and a growing slate of advanced manufacturing and logistics investments spread across St. Charles, Aurora, Elgin and Batavia. The county maintains a running list of recent project announcements that feed the ranking totals, and those entries underscore the mix of industries and deal types counted in the score. See the county’s project log on the county site for the full roster.
Numbers and the economic picture
On the fundamentals, BEA figures (via FRED) put Kane County’s GDP at about $35.45 billion in 2023 and roughly $37.06 billion in 2024, giving the county a scale that tends to catch corporate investors’ eyes. Labor data from the BLS household survey (also via FRED) list roughly 262,700 employed residents in 2024, which amounts to a sizable labor pool for manufacturers and logistics firms. Local officials regularly point to those fundamentals, along with proximity to O’Hare, major interstates and freight rail, when they sit down with site consultants.
What’s next
County leaders and the KCEDC say they plan to lean on the ranking as a calling card in conversations with site consultants and corporate real estate managers, while rolling out a site readiness program to streamline permitting and infrastructure coordination. The organization’s recent press announcement and staffing moves outline a first year agenda centered on speeding decisions and reducing friction for incoming projects; see the KCEDC release for more detail.
