Provo, Orem officials respond to area’s tumble in best-performing cities ranking
- The “Provo Welcomes the World” sign is pictured Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025.
- Provo and Brigham Young University are pictured Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025.

Jacob Nielson, Daily Herald
The "Provo Welcomes the World" sign is pictured Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025.
Though the Provo-Orem metropolitan area dropped in the Milken Institute’s Best-Performing Cities Index for 2025, city officials remain optimistic about the community’s economic growth.
Provo-Orem placed 15th in the rankings for large cities in the U.S., a high mark compared to the entire nation but below a fifth-place finish last year and three consecutive first-place finishes from 2021 to 2023.
Maggie Switek, senior director of the research department at Milken, said a slowdown in the high-tech industry impacted job and wage growth in the area.
Provo City Communications Director Nicole Martin acknowledged the tech downturn played a role but believes Provo will bounce back.
“We were honored to be the first city to ever be named ‘Best Performing’ for three consecutive years,” Martin told the Daily Herald in a statement. “Our drop this year reflects the cyclical economic cycle, no doubt impacted by multiple high profile layoffs over the past two years – including job losses at large hometown companies like Qualtrics. This tracks with the national trend of slower growth.”

Jacob Nielson, Daily Herald
Provo and Brigham Young University are pictured Tuesday, Jan. 14, 2025.
“From the birth of Wordperfect and Novell,” Martin added, “Provo City has been a seedbed for innovation. The entrepreneurial roots run deep, so we have every confidence that our innovative culture, years in the making, will thrive as the market rights itself.”
Milken pulled much of its data from 2023 or prior to build its 2025 rankings.
Provo-Orem was 133rd in wage growth from 2022 to 2023 and 194th in high-tech gross domestic product from 2022 to 2024, but was first in resilient households in 2023 and second in Gini index — which measures income inequality — for 2023.
“Honestly, just being in the top 20, top 15, is still a huge honor,” Orem Communications Manager Pete Wolfley said. “The other areas that cities are measured in, we still rank super high. Economic resiliency, preparedness. So I think we feel good about where we’re at. There’s 20,000 cities and towns in the country, and to essentially be in the top 15, we still feel really good about it.”
Wolfley said Orem’s primary goal is to make itself as economically vibrant as possible. Through the Orem Business Alliance, he said the city wants to make it easy to start and grow a business.
“The City Council has set some new goals for streamlining the business licensing process, making that super easy so that if you have an idea for business, you can get it started,” Wolfley said. “We also promote our local businesses, hook them up with resources throughout the valley, and just do everything we can to make it a place where businesses can thrive.”