Forbes magazine’s annual ranking of the Best States for Business put South Carolina 16th in the nation.

Here’s how we placed in the categories used to determine the order:

• Business costs: No. 21

• Labor supply: No. 20

• Regulatory environment: No. 17

• Economic climate: No. 15

• Growth prospects: No. 12

• Quality of life: No. 39

The state’s best-performing category, growth prospects, was drawn from job, income and gross state product growth forecasts over the next 5 years from Moody’s Analytics.

Its lowest-performing ranking, quality of life, factors in crime data from the FBI, school test performance from the Department of Education and cost of living figures.

South Carolina’s ranking page noted the massive net migration to the state over the last several years, something which it shares with No.1-ranked North Carolina. Forbes also noted the Palmetto State’s use of incentives to lure investment from foreign and domestic companies and the state’s extremely low 2.7% union membership.

North Carolina placed first in Forbes’ overall ranking in 2017 and 2018, too.

While we didn’t crack this ranking’s top 10, our 3 largest cities featured prominently another magazine’s year-end list.

The magazine ranked Charleston as 7th best to start a new business in 2020, Columbia 42nd best and Greenville 33rd.