Pennsylvania just muscled its way to 13th place in CNBC’s latest America’s Top States for Business rankings, its best showing in 15 years, and officials in Harrisburg are treating it like a marquee win. They credit faster permitting, bigger bets on site‑readiness and a run of fresh corporate investment, all of which they hope will lure more attention from site selectors scouting places like Pittsburgh and other Pennsylvania metros for new factories, data centers and life‑sciences campuses.
The climb to No. 13, up four spots from last year and the highest Pennsylvania has placed since 2011, was first reported by the Pittsburgh Business Times, which noted that the surge reflects improvements across the metrics that corporate location scouts watch most closely. State and regional development leaders are pitching the result as validation that recent policy changes are starting to move the needle on competitiveness and investment flows.
In a statement, Gov. Josh Shapiro’s office said the jump is no accident, pointing to deliberate efforts to cut red tape, launch a PA Permit Fast Track and an Office of Transformation and Opportunity, and expand site‑readiness funding through the PA SITES program. The administration also highlighted more than $41 billion in private‑sector investment and high‑profile projects, including a new Eli Lilly manufacturing campus, as proof that the state is “competing - and winning,” according to the governor’s press release. Gov. Josh Shapiro’s office lays out the mix of programs and headline deals it says helped lift the Commonwealth.
New metrics are reshuffling the leaderboard
CNBC’s 2026 study scored all 50 states on 138 metrics across 10 categories, and, new this year, it explicitly measured permitting speed and other site‑approval factors. Infrastructure and permitting carried more weight than in past editions, a shift that can benefit states that have sped up approvals, certified shovel‑ready sites or strengthened utilities and broadband, according to CNBC’s rollout materials. CNBC details the reworked scoring system and category weights in its 2026 release.
Big deals are lifting regional profiles
Those methodology tweaks land in the middle of a high‑profile deal streak. Eli Lilly’s announced $3.5 billion injectable‑medicine and device campus in Lehigh County, which the company says will bring roughly 850 permanent jobs plus thousands of construction roles, is the kind of marquee project that factors into site‑selection calculations. Eli Lilly’s news release and state filings describe the development as a major win for Pennsylvania’s life‑sciences pitch. Officials also point to targeted site‑development grants and a PA SITES fund focused on creating shovel‑ready parcels across the Commonwealth.
What to watch next
The higher ranking gives Pennsylvania a clear public‑relations boost, but experts and coverage of the list note that year‑to‑year moves often reflect methodology tweaks and short‑term project announcements as much as bigger structural changes. Axios, which has tracked the 2026 rankings, underscores how shifts in category weighting, especially around infrastructure and permitting, scrambled many states’ positions this year and helped crown Ohio the top state overall. Axios stresses that these lists are a snapshot, and economists will be watching to see whether Pennsylvania’s new perch translates into sustained hiring, larger payrolls and more headquarters or manufacturing relocations over time.
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