Report: Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue area has nation's 4th strongest economy

A new survey ranks the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue area as having the fourth-strongest economy in the nation.

The new report, by Business Insider, ranked the strength of the nation's 40 largest metropolitan areas based on five criteria: unemployment rate, average weekly wage, job growth rate, gross domestic product per capita, and GDP growth rate.

The survey then placed those criteria on a common scale and combined them to get a picture of the overall state of each metro area's economy.

The study found that some metropolitan areas, such as Seattle, have particularly strong economies. Others, such as Cleveland, Virginia Beach and Providence, are much weaker.

According to the report, Seattle's economy has been supercharged by hosting the headquarters of Amazon, even though the online giant has a mixed relationship with the locals of its home city.

Seattle's 2016 GDP per capita of $86,889 was the fourth-highest among the 40 largest metro areas, and its third-quarter 2017 average weekly wage of $1,445 was the third-highest in the nation.

The Portland-Vancouver area was ranked 13th, with an above-average GDP growth rate of 3 percent.

The five metro areas with the strongest economies, in addition to Seattle, were (No. 1) San Jose, Calif.; (2) San Francisco, Calif.; (3) Austin, Texas; and (5) Denver, Colo.

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View the entire survey results here ...