The Des Moines–West Des Moines metropolitan area ranked No. 100 in the Milken Institute’s 2026 Best-Performing Cities (BPC) Index, placing it in Tier 3 of 5, where Tier 1 is the highest rank. The annual index ranks 411 U.S. metropolitan areas using 13 indicators that measure job and wage growth, high-tech industry performance, housing affordability, broadband access and community resilience. For the Des Moines–West Des Moines metro area, the report shows 7% job growth from 2019 to 2024 and 1.2% job growth from 2023 to 2024, with short-term job growth at -0.6%. Wages in the metro grew 32.7% over the five-year period and 3.5% year over year, while high-tech GDP increased 55.9% from 2019 to 2024 and 6.5% from 2023 to 2024. The metro posted a high-tech location quotient of 0.6, with two high-tech industries exceeding a location quotient of 1. Additional indicators include 75% of households with affordable housing and 93% of households with broadband access. Other Iowa metropolitan areas included in the 2026 BPC Index are Ames at No. 68 (Tier 3), Iowa City at No. 122 (Tier 3), Dubuque at No. 170 (Tier 4), Sioux City at No. 171 (Tier 4), Waterloo–Cedar Falls at No. 177 (Tier 4), Cedar Rapids at No. 188 (Tier 5) and Davenport–Moline–Rock Island at No. 192 (Tier 5). The full report and an interactive map are available at milkeninstitute.org.