Facts & Rankings
Business Climate
Florida ranked #4 in the nation and #1 in the Southeast for the most competitive business tax system by Tax Foundation in their State Business Tax Climate Index.
-Tax Foundation, 2016
Florida has 4th largest economy in the U.S.
Southern Business & Development magazine ranks Panama City as the South’s #1 Pro-Business Beach Community.
- Southern Business & Development, 9th Annual 10 Top 10s Edition, Winter 2011
Business Facilities magazine ranks Panama City as the #1 Metro Area for Economic Growth Potential for communities with a population of less than 200,000, surpassing other ranked cities like Knoxville, TN and Greenville, SC.
- Business Facilities, Annual State Rankings, July/August 2010
Florida ranks #2 in the nation of Best States for Business. More than 500 CEO’s across the U.S. rated states on a wide range of criteria from taxation and regulation to workforce quality and living environment.
- Chief Executive, 2014
Florida ranked 1st for U.S. Aviation Manufacturing Attractiveness in PricewaterhouseCooper's study "Aviation's Second Gold Age: Can the U.S. aircraft industry maintain leadership?"
- PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, 2013
Florida ranked #1 for Innovation by Fast Company in their report titled "The United States of Innovation: Ranking the States (and a District) for Innovation."
-Fast Company, 2013
Florida earns another Silver Shovel Award from Area Development Magazine in the category of states with a population over 15 million.
- Area Development Magazine, 2014
Education & Workforce
FSU Panama City is a local branch of a Tier 1 Research Institution.
Florida has the 3rd largest workforce in the nation.
No Floridian lives more than 50 miles from an institution of post-secondary learning and the number of Floridians with associate, bachelor and advanced degrees has increased at almost double the national rate.
- Florida Trend’s Business Florida, 2011
Bay High School, located in Panama City, Florida, ranks in the top 1 percent of all U.S. high schools in the nation.
- Newsweek, June 2010
Infrastructure
The nation’s first international airport since 1995, Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport, was opened in 2010 in Bay County.
Florida ranked #1 in infrastructure by the US Chamber Foundation.
- US Chamber Foundation, 2013
Quality of Life
Panama City Beach was ranked #10 out of the Top Ten beaches in the U.S.
- TripAdvisor, 2015
Panama City Beach landed at #51 in the Top 100 Beaches in the World, coming in as the highest ranked beach in
the continental U.S. and the only beach in Florida to make the list.
- CNN Travel, 2013