The state of Oregon · Economy
What it costs to do business in Oregon
Oregon ranks 35th on tax competitiveness and 42nd for business, and the decline is traceable to specific decisions rather than to bad luck.
Figures current as of October 2026 · every number on this page is sourced below
Where Oregon is
Tax competitiveness, overall
35th
Oregon ranked 8th in 2020. It has fallen 27 places in six years.
Corporate tax component
49th
Second to last in the country. Oregon ranked 25th in 2020, before the Corporate Activity Tax took effect.
Sales tax component
4th
Oregon has no sales tax. This is a real and durable advantage and it is why the overall rank is not worse.
CNBC overall, top states for business
42nd
Bottom ten in three categories: cost of doing business, business friendliness, and cost of living.
Infrastructure
17th
A genuine strength. Oregon also ranks 18th on technology and innovation and 22nd on quality of life.
Unemployment
5.2%
Up from 4.7 percent in the March 2026 forecast. State economists describe a low-hire, low-fire economy.
Oregon's tax competitiveness rank, 2020 to 2026
Lower is better. The steepest single drop is 2020 to 2022, which is when the Corporate Activity Tax took effect.
Best rank at the top, worst at the bottom.
| Year | Rank |
|---|---|
| 2020 | 8 of 50 |
| 2021 | 12 of 50 |
| 2022 | 28 of 50 |
| 2023 | 31 of 50 |
| 2024 | 26 of 50 |
| 2025 | 33 of 50 |
| 2026 | 35 of 50 |
Where Oregon places, by category
CNBC, America's Top States for Business 2026. Lower is better. Oregon is strong on what it has built and weak on what it costs.
- Infrastructure17th
- Technology and innovation18th
- Quality of life22nd
- Workforce24th
- Access to capital27th
- Education34th
- Economy39th
- Cost of doing business43rd
- Business friendliness43rd
- Cost of living45th
Longer is better. Red marks a bottom-fifteen placement.
| Category | Rank |
|---|---|
| Infrastructure | 17 of 50 |
| Technology and innovation | 18 of 50 |
| Quality of life | 22 of 50 |
| Workforce | 24 of 50 |
| Access to capital | 27 of 50 |
| Education | 34 of 50 |
| Economy | 39 of 50 |
| Cost of doing business | 43 of 50 |
| Business friendliness | 43 of 50 |
| Cost of living | 45 of 50 |
In her own words
We must make Oregon more business friendly again. This is an incredible place to live. It's not hard to get people to come here, but we have to allow businesses to grow and thrive if we want them to stay.
Rep. Elmer · Lucetta for Oregon, Issues
49th
Oregon's corporate tax rank, down from 25th in 2020
What it adds up to
Read the two rankings together and they say the same thing twice. Oregon is a good place to be and an expensive place to operate. Infrastructure, 17th. Technology and innovation, 18th. Quality of life, 22nd. Those are the numbers of a state people want to live in. Cost of doing business, 43rd. Business friendliness, 43rd. Cost of living, 45th. Those are the numbers of a state that is hard to stay in once you are paying the bills.
The corporate tax number is the one worth sitting with. Oregon ranked 25th in the country on corporate taxes in 2020. It ranks 49th now. That is not a drift and it is not other states reforming around us. It is the Corporate Activity Tax, which took effect in January 2020 and is projected to raise $2.98 billion this biennium. A tax on gross receipts is paid whether a business made money or not, which is why it lands hardest on the ones with thin margins: grocers, farms, construction, anyone moving a lot of volume at a small markup.
That was a choice the Legislature made, with a purpose, and the revenue funds schools. The honest sentence is not that the tax is a mistake. The honest sentence is that it has a price, the price is now measurable, and six years on it is fair to ask whether the state is getting what it paid for.
The unemployment number is the quiet one. Oregon went from 4.7 percent to 5.2 percent in six months. State economists call it a low-hire, low-fire economy, which is a careful way of saying that nobody is being laid off and nobody is being hired either. For a young person in McMinnville trying to start, that is the whole problem.
A good place to be. An expensive place to operate.
CNBC's ten categories, split by where Oregon lands. The same state is in both columns, which is the whole argument.
What Oregon has built
- 17Infrastructure
- 18Technology and innovation
- 22Quality of life
- 24Workforce
What Oregon costs
- 39Economy
- 43Cost of doing business
- 43Business friendliness
- 45Cost of living
The honest objection
A ranking measures structure, not outcomes, and a state can climb the tables without a single new job appearing. Oregon's no-sales-tax position means the income and business taxes carry a load that other states spread across purchases, so any serious reduction has to say what gets funded differently, or less. The Corporate Activity Tax money goes to schools. Anyone arguing to shrink it owes an answer on that, and this page does not pretend otherwise.
What a lighter burden buys
- Employers who can afford to stay in the towns they started in
- Jobs that let people stay where they grew up
- A rank that stops falling, after six years of falling
What it costs
- Revenue the state has already committed to schools
- The Corporate Activity Tax funds K-12. Shrink it and that gap is real
- A better rank is not the same thing as a new job
What would change the conclusion
If Oregon's business rankings improved while employment and new business formation stayed flat, the rankings would be measuring something that does not matter. The test is jobs and firms, not placement in a table.
Sources
Every figure above traces to one of these. Check them. If a number here is wrong, that is worth knowing and worth telling us.
The other reports
The state of Oregon · Education
What Oregon spends on schools, and what it gets
Graduation rates are at a record high and reading and math scores sit below the national average. Both are true, and the gap between them is the story.
The state of Oregon · Agriculture
What Oregon grows, and who grows it
Nursery and greenhouse stock is Oregon's largest commodity, most of it sold out of state, and a great deal of it grown within an hour of McMinnville.
The state of Oregon · Budget
What Oregon takes in, and what it holds back
Revenue is $35.7 billion and rising, reserves are near $3.2 billion, and there is no kicker projected for the next biennium.