The Silver Spring-Rockville-Frederick metropolitan area ranked 123rd out of 200 large cities in the Milken Institute’s 2025 Best Performing Cities index, which was released last week.
The Santa Monica, Calif.-based economic think tank’s annual BPC index evaluates the economic performance of 403 metropolitan areas using 13 key metrics, including labor market conditions and high-tech industry growth.
This year, the Silver Spring-Rockville-Frederick metropolitan area’s ranking of 123 improved from 147 in 2024, but a decrease from 100 in 2023, placing sixteenth in the fourth tier out of five in the index.
The area saw a 1.3% increase in job growth and a 4.8% wage increase from 2022 to 2023, with short-term job growth at 0.4% from July 2023 to July 2024.
According to Bethesda Today, the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area improved its ranking to No. 62 among large cities in 2025, up from No. 134 in 2023 and No. 98 in 2024.
Raleigh, North Carolina, topped the list, followed by Ogden-Clearfield and Salt Lake City, Utah. The top small cities were Gainesville, Georgia, and St. George, Utah.
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