Since Amazon announced plans for a second headquarters, cities around the US have been scrambling to attract the tech giant to their corner of the country. Whether it’s tax breaks, naming rights, or lofty Hyperloop promises, the location of Amazon’s new headquarters could be pretty much anywhere. But that hasn’t stopped media outlets like the New York Times, Moody’s, CNN, and CNBC from projecting which cities are most likely to land the biggest economy-growing fish out there. Fortunately, one study put them all together.
Sterling’s BestPlaces, a website designed to help people figure out where to move, was tired of all the conjecture and decided that the best way to predict where Amazon’s new headquarters would land was to combine the rankings of 18 different sources into one comprehensive list. But even with all that data, their founder isn’t ready to make a definite pick.
“Experts are clearly favoring Atlanta, according to our analysis,” said Bert Sperling, of Sperling’s BestPlaces. “Boston and Chicago are close behind, but Amazon may very well make an unexpected pick for their new HQ2.”
Using the rankings from all these media outlets, Sterling’s BestPlace gave each city a score out of 50, with the lower scores being more likely to land Amazon’s new headquarters in their backyard. For the full 64-city rankings, check out the full report here, or take a look at the top ten below:
1. Atlanta, GA – 13.6
2. Boston, MA – 17.2
3. Chicago, IL – 21.7
4. Philadelphia, PA – 25.8
5. Washington, D.C. – 26.5
6. Austin, TX – 26.6
7. Dallas, TX – 27.7
8. Denver, CO – 28.3
9. New York, NY – 29.3
10. Raleigh, NC – 31.6
