Saturday, July 21 — The City of Falls Church is far outperforming all other jurisdicitions in Virginia in terms of income investment, a new study from Smart Asset shows. SmartAsset has released its annual study on the places receiving the most incoming investment. The study measures growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP), new business launches and new building permits to determine the places receiving the most investment locally.

According to the study, Falls Church City County ranked first among the places in Virginia with the most incoming investment.

For a comparison of the top ranking counties in Virginia, see the table below:

The study identifies the places across the U.S. which are receiving the most incoming investment. The study measures investment in counties across three metrics: business establishment growth, gross domestic product (GDP) growth and new building permits.

Smart Asset looked at the change in the number of businesses established in each location over a 3-year period. This shows whether or not people are starting new business ventures in the county.

The second factor it looked at was GDP growth. We used real growth (inflation adjusted) in the local economy.

It also looked at investment and development in the local residential real estate market. To measure this real estate growth, we calculated the number of new building permits per 1,000 homes.

It scored every county in its study on these three factors and then combined those scores to create a final ranking of counties. With that ranking, it created an index where the county with the most incoming investments was assigned a value of 100 and the county with the least investment activity received a zero.