The Cincinnati region is headquarters to 10 Fortune 500 firms but what does that mean to people who live here? The University of Cincinnati has figured it out with something it calls the Fortune 500 Benefits Index. The index, calcuated by UC researchers, quantifies the relationship between the presence of Fortune 500 company headquarters and a region’s quality of life. By measuring things like education, culture, leisure activities, health services and transportation, the index proves what many intuitively know: these big companies bring big advantages.
The Cincinnati region showed higher values than the national averages for six areas: classical music, professional theater, arts radio, amusement parks, botanical gardens and arboretums and zoo aquariums. By the way, Cincinnati has more Fortune 500 companies per capita (4.85 companies per million people) than New York Chicago, or Los Angeles. And in case you're wondering, they are Procter & Gamble, Kroger, Macy's Inc., Ashland Inc., Fifth Third Bancorp, Omnicare, AK Steel, Western & Southern Financial, Cincinnati Financial Corp. and Chiquita Brands International.
Writer: David Holthaus
Source: Wendy Beckman, UC
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