Ohio Is No. 1 for Business. Cincinnati Doesn’t Fit Inside Ohio

Amazon’s largest air hub in the world carries Cincinnati’s name, employs local workers, and strengthens nearly every economic pitch Greater Cincinnati makes.

It sits in Kentucky.

CNBC announced the Ohio business ranking on July 9, placing Ohio first among all 50 states in its 2026 America’s Top States for Business study — the first time Ohio has claimed the top spot since the study launched in 2007. Cincinnati benefits from many of the strengths that drove Ohio to No. 1. But when companies actually shop for Cincinnati, they compare sites in Mason, Blue Ash, Hebron, Florence, and Lawrenceburg before caring which state name appears on the mailing address. That is the part of Cincinnati’s competitive advantage that state rankings struggle to capture.

None of this diminishes Ohio’s accomplishment. The state earned the Ohio business ranking on its own merits. The point is that Cincinnati’s competitive advantages extend beyond Ohio’s borders — and always have.

What the Ohio Business Ranking Actually Measures

CNBC’s study scores all 50 states across 138 metrics in 10 categories, for a total of 2,500 possible points. Ohio scored 1,623, climbing from No. 5 in 2025 and No. 34 back in 2010. CNBC weighted Infrastructure and Cost of Doing Business most heavily in 2026 — exactly where Ohio excels.

Ohio earned the #1 spot in Infrastructure, earning an A+ grade. The state holds the fourth-largest interstate highway system in the country, the fourth-largest network of operating airports, and more than 143 million people within a one-day drive. Ohio also earned #1 in Cost of Doing Business. The state carries no corporate income tax. In 2025, Ohio doubled the exclusion amount on its Commercial Activity Tax, exempting about 90% of Ohio-based businesses. Ohio also finished in the top 10 for Economy (#9), Access to Capital (#9), and Cost of Living (#9).

Ohio Won on Infrastructure. It Still Has a Workforce Problem.

The CNBC ranking contains an important contradiction. Ohio finished first overall while ranking just 34th in Workforce — one of the weakest scores among the categories that determine long-term economic growth.

CNBC points to two related issues: slow population growth and a labor pool that has not kept pace with employer demand. Put simply, Ohio has become very good at attracting companies. Finding enough qualified workers to fill those jobs is proving more difficult.

Manufacturers continue to report shortages of skilled tradespeople, including welders, machinists, electricians, and maintenance technicians. Logistics companies around CVG regularly recruit for CDL drivers, aircraft mechanics, warehouse supervisors, and other positions that can be difficult to fill. Healthcare systems across the region continue to compete aggressively for nurses and other clinical staff.

The irony is that Ohio’s greatest strength may be creating its biggest challenge. Success attracts investment, and investment creates demand for workers faster than the local labor force can grow.

Universities and training programs are trying to close that gap. The University of Cincinnati’s nationally recognized co-op program, Cincinnati State’s workforce development initiatives, and regional apprenticeship programs all feed talent into employers. But CNBC’s ranking suggests those efforts have not yet kept pace with the state’s economic momentum.

That may become Ohio’s next competitive race. Building another industrial park is relatively straightforward. Building thousands of skilled workers takes years.

Companies Shop for a Region

Cincinnati has always treated the river as a connector, not a boundary. Long before interstates or Amazon jets, businesses crossed the Ohio River because customers, workers, and suppliers did the same. The political border held. The economy moved past it.

That pattern defines the region today. REDI Cincinnati, the region’s economic development organization, markets a 15-county, three-state region — Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana — not an Ohio-only economy. The Bureau of Labor Statistics officially defines the Cincinnati-OH-KY-IN Metropolitan Statistical Area to include counties in all three states. A company evaluating Greater Cincinnati examines the entire region, not a single state’s tax code.

From a worker’s standpoint, the border barely registers. A Cincinnati resident takes a job in Boone County. A Northern Kentucky logistics firm hires an Ohio accounting firm. An Indiana manufacturer ships through CVG. As our reporting on Cincinnati’s logistics advantage showed, the region’s multimodal freight network crosses state lines by design — and that cross-border strength is a large part of what makes the Greater Cincinnati business climate so competitive.

Cincinnati’s Biggest Asset in the Greater Cincinnati Business Climate Is in Kentucky

Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport ranks as the sixth-largest cargo airport in North America and the 12th largest globally. It houses Amazon Air’s primary U.S. hub — a 3-million-square-foot facility on 798 acres that processes an estimated 50 million packages per month and manages more than 200 daily flights. It also hosts DHL’s Global Superhub for the Americas, the largest of DHL’s three global hubs worldwide. Skytrax named CVG the Best Regional Airport in North America in 2026.

CVG is located in Boone County, Kentucky, and is operated by the Kenton County Airport Board. Kentucky government agencies oversee the airport and surrounding development, while local tax revenue largely remains on the Kentucky side of the river. The jobs Amazon Air creates count in Kentucky. The property taxes from nearby logistics parks fund Boone County services and schools. When a new warehouse opens near CVG, Kentucky controls the permit and receives the address.

Cincinnati receives huge benefits from CVG: residents work there, companies ship through it. The airport enhances the metro’s overall attractiveness to corporate investment. But Ohio does not collect every dividend from one of the most important logistics assets in the Midwest — and that distinction matters when reading any state-by-state ranking. The same logic applies to Indiana. Lawrenceburg and Dearborn County are part of the Cincinnati metro, contribute workers to the regional economy, and compete for the same employers. They appear in REDI Cincinnati’s regional pitch. They do not appear in Ohio’s CNBC score.

What Cincinnati Gains — and What the Ohio Business Ranking Doesn’t Capture

The benefits for Greater Cincinnati are real. The Ohio business ranking gives the region a stronger line when recruiting corporate relocations. Sites in Mason, Blue Ash, and West Chester become more attractive when Ohio’s tax code and infrastructure lead the nation. Cincinnati’s strongest industries — logistics, advanced manufacturing, healthcare, and consumer goods — all benefit directly from the infrastructure advantages that drove Ohio’s score.

REDI Cincinnati has supported more than 40,000 jobs and $6.2 billion in capital investment since 2014. The University of Cincinnati contributes an estimated $22.7 billion annually to Ohio’s economy and supports more than 125,000 jobs statewide through its co-op programs and 1819 Innovation Hub. That talent pipeline directly addresses Ohio’s 34th-place ranking in workforce performance.

For workers, the picture is more complicated. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, workers in the Cincinnati-OH-KY-IN metro earned an average hourly wage of $30.78 in 2024 — just below the national average of $32.66. The city of Cincinnati’s median household income sits at $52,909, well below the Ohio median of $62,000 and the national median of $77,000. A #1 Ohio business ranking does not automatically close that gap. As our coverage of Cincinnati’s business closure trends showed, ranking-level economic strength and ground-level business stability are two different things — and the gap between them shows up in neighborhoods long before it shows up in state scorecards.

Ohio CNBC Ranking 2026: What to Watch Next

Several projects will test whether the Ohio business ranking translates into broadly shared gains for the region. The $4.2 billion SoftBank data center in Pike County — roughly 90 minutes east of Cincinnati, built on a former federal nuclear site — represents one of the largest economic development projects in Ohio history.

As our reporting on Ohio’s data center boom noted, these projects generate tens of thousands of construction jobs but far fewer permanent positions — an important distinction when evaluating how broadly investment benefits workers. CVG continues expanding its cargo capacity. The Cincinnati Innovation District keeps growing. And the region’s ability to attract and retain population remains the longer-term test of whether any business ranking produces lasting results.

CNBC ranked states because states write tax codes. Companies do not always think that way. When executives fly into CVG, tour a site in Mason, have dinner downtown, and stay at a hotel in Covington, they evaluate one metropolitan economy — not three state governments.

That is the part of Cincinnati no state ranking can fully measure.

Sources: CNBC America’s Top States for Business 2026, JobsOhio, CVG Airport, Bureau of Labor Statistics, REDI Cincinnati, University of Cincinnati.