A website specializing in investment and finance has ranked Suffolk second in Virginia for incoming investment.

SmartAsset also ranked Suffolk 80th in the entire nation in its study, which looked at business growth, GDP growth, building permits and municipal bonds to come up with the numbers.

In Virginia, Suffolk was ranked only behind Loudoun County, a neighbor of the nation’s capital.

“It’s actually really exciting to be listed right behind Loudoun, because it’s pretty well known as a fast growing locality,” City Manager Patrick Roberts said. “It’s really encouraging.”

The SmartAsset study used public data from the U.S. Census Bureau and U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis to come up with the numbers. It weighed the change in the number of businesses in each locality over a three-year period; GDP growth in the local economy; the number of new building permits per 1,000 homes; and investment in municipal bonds per capita over the last five years. Each factor was weighted equally.

In the individual areas, Suffolk was ranked third in new building permits and fifth in municipal bonds.

“They’re looking for factors in private investment and public investment,” Roberts said. “There continues to be a tremendous investment in business investment, continued business growth, and people moving to Suffolk. Within the last several years, we have continued to invest where we need to in roads and schools. It’s very exciting to be recognized as such.”

“It’s important that our citizens understand that the fiscal discipline and restraint practiced in recent years have translated into solid financial health, as reflected in our strong standings in the categories of incoming investment, new building permits and municipal bonds as noted by SmartAsset,” Mayor Linda T. Johnson said.

Isle of Wight County was eighth in the state in the rankings, with its strongest showing I an individual category also in new building permits.

Both localities improved from their rankings in the same index in 2015. Isle of Wight was 10th last year, while Suffolk was not ranked in the top 10.