The annual Forbes Business and Career survey studies the 150 largest metro areas in the nation. It bases overall rank upon performance in nine categories. The Innovation Valley did especially well in two of the three most important measures --- the cost of doing business (20th place) and in job growth (at 24th spot).

Knoxville's job growth was well ahead of all other metro areas in the state.

Only our score in educational attainment seems to be keeping the region from moving even higher in the rankings.

Here's how the region compares with the other Tennessee metro areas in terms of overall ranking and in the three most important sub-categories, cost of doing business, job growth and educational attainment:

In giving its overall Business and Career rankings, Forbes also considers six other categories: number of engineers (considered a key to high tech growth), cost of living, crime rate, culture and leisure, income growth and net migration. Here's how Knoxville fared against the nation's 150 largest metropolitan areas in all nine categories:

#17 Knoxville TN
Population: 722,000

Boise, Idaho, received the top overall ranking, but Knoxville actually got a better score than Boise for the cost of doing business (20th versus Boise's 22nd ranking). Knoxville's also outpaced 2nd overall Raleigh in the important sub-category of job growth (24th ranking compared to Raleigh's 53rd ranking).