March 10, 2025
The Oregon Business and Industry Research and Education Foundation today released the 2025 Oregon Competitiveness Book, a collection of more than 50 indicators of economic competitiveness, from per-capita personal income to state gross domestic product. For each indicator, the Oregon Competitiveness Book ranks Oregon among the 50 states.
As a companion to the Oregon Competitiveness Book, OBI has created a competitiveness web page that provides context and analysis for the book and beyond. The page sorts Oregon Competitiveness Book data into 11 categories, including business climate, taxation, wages and income, population and workforce, GDP and exports, and more. For each category, the web page provides trend information, where available, as well as additional data from Oregon Competitiveness Book source material and elsewhere. Visitors to the web page can read and download a copy of the Oregon Competitiveness Book.
What do the Oregon Competitiveness Book and companion site show? They describe a state that by most measures continues to wrestle with the competitive challenges described by the inaugural Oregon Competitiveness Book, released in 2024.
While Oregon is exceptional in some areas, including quality of life, technology and innovation, it continues to struggle in many others. State and local taxes are among the nation’s highest for individuals and businesses, for example. Its regulatory environment is ranked among the country’s most stifling.
And in only one year, Oregon slipped seven places in CNBC’s America’s Top States for Business ranking. According to CNBC, only two states are now less business-friendly than Oregon: New York and New Jersey.
“The rankings in this year’s Competitiveness Book reflect what businesses throughout Oregon already know,” said OBI President and CEO Angela Wilhelms. “Oregon is a wonderful place with so many advantages, but its business climate, regulatory environment, high taxes, and chronic shortage of housing and buildable land make operating a business in Oregon more difficult and costly. We have to take action to restore Oregon’s competitiveness and grow the economy.”
“The data in the Oregon Competitiveness Book should not surprise policymakers,” said Wilhelms. “In many ways, the book echoes reports released by other organizations, including the Portland Metro Chamber’s State of the Economy report and the state’s own quarterly economic and revenue forecasts. To build a healthy and prosperous economy, we must remain competitive. And to remain competitive, policymakers must address Oregon’s business climate.”
Economic competitiveness matters because businesses provide hundreds of thousands of jobs and generate the tax revenue Oregon’s state and local governments need to sustain critical public services. Unless Oregon becomes more competitive, business investment will continue to flow to more welcoming states, and talented people, innovation and tax revenue will follow.
