Kane County ranks among the top four places in Illinois in business growth, according to New York-based financial technology company SmartAsset.

The company completed a study, primarily based on U.S. Census data, on counties receiving the greatest amount of investment in their local economies with a goal of uncovering “the places poised to grow.” Factors included business establishment growth, GDP growth, new building permits and municipal bond investment.

“Local investment and economic expansion are encouraging signs to citizens everywhere, because of the inherent quality of life improvements they signal,” the company said.

In the graphic at left, counties with the darkest shade of blue were the highest performers. For a more in-depth look at the study and methodology, please visit the SmartAsset website.

As you can see in the chart below, the ranking is based on the “incoming investment index,” which takes the four factors, weights each factor evenly and combines them into a “grading curve,” 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.

Kane County showed 1.1 percent business growth, $1.005 billion in GDP growth, a strong building permits ratio of 5.9 per 1,000 homes and $650 municipal bond per capita.

The top performers in each category (and Kane County’s position in comparison) are as follows:

• Cook County had the highest GDP growth in total dollars, with $10.495 billion. (Kane was fourth.)
• Kendall County had the highest percentage of business growth, at 2.6 percent. (Kane was fourth.)
• Monroe County lead the league in new building permits, with a ratio of 9.0. (Kane was fourth.)
• Cook County had the highest municipal bonds per capita, at $1,424. (Kane was third.)

As with any of these rankings, take the information for what it’s worth. These stats may or may not be the best way to evaluate a county’s performance or potential. For example, a statistic like GDP growth in dollars is a measurement of volume and favors the larger counties.

That said, there is good news here for the local economy, and Kane County’s high showing in each of the four categories is an indicator of its economic muscle and consistency.