Lone Star State Tops For Business

CNBC today revealed the results of its second annual study of America's Top States for Business. Broadcasting from Cowtown, Correspondent Scott Cohn announced that Texas was at the top of the list:

Texas takes over the number one spot from last year's Top State, Virginia. "Clearly, Texas benefits from the current strength in the energy industry," Cohn said. "But Texas is putting together a truly diverse business climate, with high scores in areas like technology and transportation."

To determine the rankings for America's Top States for Business, each state was scored – using publicly available data – on 40 different measures of competitiveness. States received points based on their rankings in each metric, which were then separated into ten broad categories: Cost of Doing Business, Workforce, Economy, Education, Quality of Life, Technology and Innovation, Transportation, Business Friendliness and Access to Capital.

Here's the top 5:

1. Texas
2. Virginia
3. Utah
4. Idaho
5. Colorado

The worst states for busness? Here they are:
46. Mississippi
47. West Virginia
48. Rhode Island
49. Hawaii
50. Alaska