Wooster earned 3rd place for Top 2021 Micropolitans in the Nation within Site Selection Magazine’s annual rankings for 543 micropolitan areas, a jump up from its 7th-place ranking in 2020. The recognition is highlighted in the magazine’s March 2022 edition at siteselection.com. Wooster and Wayne County celebrate with Findlay, which garnered the #1 spot, as well as the State of Ohio which ranked #3 in the USA for top-performing states by projects per capita, and #1 for total number of top micros and number of micropolitan projects.
Site Selection Magazine is a publication of Conway Data Inc, which ranks micropolitan areas based on the previous year’s creation of “new corporation facility projects with significant impact, including headquarters, manufacturing plants R&D operations and logistics sites, among others”. Retail, government, or schools and hospital projects are not considered, as the award is focused on basic-sector business expansion and investment. Throughout Wayne County, 13 different projects in 2021 launched the Wooster micropolitan area upwards in the rankings.
Micropolitan areas usually comprise an area of one or two counties with a principal city of 10,000 to 50,000. The Wooster micropolitan area includes all of Wayne County, with the City of Wooster serving as the principal city with its 27,232 residents.
As part of the recognition, the City of Wooster and other Wayne County communities coordinate each year with Wayne Economic Development Council in tabulating projects across the micropolitan area. The exercise helps the greater community to measure its economic activity, evaluate foreign-direct investment, and because the process is application-driven, it uniquely showcases to a global audience that Wooster and Wayne County actively welcome new businesses, investors, and site selectors.
Site Selection Magazine is the official publication of IAMC (the Industrial Asset Management Council), a global industrial real estate association. Recognition by the publication provides a critical opportunity to highlight the community’s thriving and inviting economy to the world’s largest manufacturers and service corporations along with brokerages and site-selectors.
Correspondingly, the Wooster Micropolitan area earlier received recognition from Policom (policom.com) for being Ohio’s top performing micropolitan while ranking 14th in the nation based on a combination of current-year and historical performance metrics.
The City of Wooster with its partners across Wayne County celebrate this exciting acknowledgement! The City of Wooster thanks WEDC for its support in the application. Working together, the leadership of our residents, the inventiveness of our businesses, and teamwork of our partners, the Wooster micropolitan continues to prove that it is the best place for prosperity.