A recent survey of 2025’s Best-Performing Cities, a measurement of mapping economic growth across the United States, has New Orleans ranked 199th out of the 200 cities studied.
Dr. Brock Smith is the Associate Director of the Research Department at Milken Institute, a non-partisan organization that studies job growth, wage growth, and housing affordability. He was part of the team who conducted the study and discusses the metrics that went into the it. “We actually used thirteen metrics to measure performance and divided those into three different categories: Labor Market Performance, High Tech Job Growth, and finally, Access to Economic Opportunities,” Dr. Smith explains.
“This data explains how economic growth is shared among the population.”
New Orleans wasn’t the only Louisiana city among the bottom dwellers of the list, however. The Shreveport-Bossier City metropolitan area came in dead last at #200. Lafayette didn’t fare much better, coming in at 196th. Baton Rouge fared the best of all Louisiana cities, although still among the bottom portion of the rankings at #155th.
“Louisiana cities struggled pretty much across the board, especially in the labor market performance,” Dr. Smith notes.
Dr. Smith notes that many people moved out of state following Hurricane Ida and others have left the state because of troubles getting properly insured. This exacerbates the economic issues noted in the study. In terms of ways the region might be able to improve the economic outlook moving forward, Dr. Smith says the state should focus on growth in the high-tech sector, try to reduce the cost of doing business in the state, and incentivize more tech businesses to migrate to Louisiana.