Business & site selection
Best US metros to put a company HQ
Talent, corporate tax, cost, and wages, weighted for a headquarters.
A headquarters lives and dies on talent and total cost. These metros (100k+ residents) score best on a degreed workforce, a light corporate tax, and a manageable cost and wage base.
Published by WhereToHQ research. Calculated from committed source data with no generated editorial text.
What the ranking shows
- College Station, TX ranks first after the weighted criteria; its bachelor's degree or higher is 56.5%.
- Across the 15 published entries, bachelor's degree or higher ranges from 45.2% to 77.9%. The other columns show tradeoffs that the headline order cannot capture.
| # | City | Bachelor's degree or higher | Corporate income tax | Avg. weekly wage | Commercial electricity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | College Station, TX125k | 56.5% | 0% | $1,093/wk | 8.6¢/kWh |
| 2 | The Woodlands, TX121k | 66.1% | 0% | $1,500/wk | 8.6¢/kWh |
| 3 | Sugar Land, TX110k | 63% | 0% | $1,221/wk | 8.6¢/kWh |
| 4 | Frisco, TX219k | 67.5% | 0% | $1,307/wk | 8.6¢/kWh |
| 5 | Austin, TX980k | 59.6% | 0% | $1,588/wk | 8.6¢/kWh |
| 6 | Plano, TX291k | 60.5% | 0% | $1,769/wk | 8.6¢/kWh |
| 7 | Cary, NC179k | 70.5% | 2.25% | $1,560/wk | 10.6¢/kWh |
| 8 | Richardson, TX119k | 57% | 0% | $1,781/wk | 8.6¢/kWh |
| 9 | Allen, TX110k | 57.5% | 0% | $1,769/wk | 8.6¢/kWh |
| 10 | McKinney, TX211k | 54.1% | 0% | $1,769/wk | 8.6¢/kWh |
| 11 | League City, TX116k | 47.6% | 0% | $1,260/wk | 8.6¢/kWh |
| 12 | Carmel, IN102k | 74.4% | 4.9% | $1,391/wk | 12.4¢/kWh |
| 13 | Pearland, TX128k | 47.1% | 0% | $1,356/wk | 8.6¢/kWh |
| 14 | Ann Arbor, MI122k | 77.9% | 6% | $1,476/wk | 14.0¢/kWh |
| 15 | Carrollton, TX134k | 45.2% | 0% | $1,307/wk | 8.6¢/kWh |
Ranked from public data we track (US Census/ACS, BLS, EIA, FEMA, NOAA, Tax Foundation) and recomputed on every data refresh. Figures are estimates for comparison, not advice; open any city to see all facets.
Candidate rules: 100,000 or more residents. Ranking rule: weighted score using Bachelor's degree or higher (5), Corporate income tax (4), Cost of living index (3), Avg. weekly wage (2).
WhereToHQ loads at most the 500 largest eligible national candidates, or 300 candidates for a state list, before applying the published rules. Missing values are excluded from a direct sort or hard filter. In a weighted score, an unknown value is neutral rather than favorable.