How strong is Phoenix’s economy compared to other large cities across the United States?
Questions like that are what the Milken Institute set out to answer with its annual Best-Performing Cities report . Analysts at the nonpartisan think tank analyzed 13 different statistics to rank cities based on the impact of high tech, performance of the labor market and residents’ access to economic opportunities.
The 2025 report included 403 metropolitan areas, divided into a small city and large city list. The Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale area (Phoenix for short) and Tucson were the only Arizona cities in the large category…