Site Selection magazine and website is preparing to rank the Dayton area at No. 1 on its list of metro areas drawing new business facilities and enabling business expansions among metropolitan areas with populations of 200,000 to one million people.

The annual ranking is based on research by the staff of the magazine and website, said Mark Arend, Site Selection’s editor in chief.

The ranking can be seen as good publicity for the area and the state.

“It’s great to see Dayton getting national recognition for its job creation efforts,” Connie Wehrkamp, a spokeswoman for Ohio Gov. John Kasich, said Thursday. “It’s a reflection of Ohio’s success statewide to get back on track. We’ve got more work to do, but we’re all making progress.”

“It has to do with the number of qualified projects in the area,” Arend said.

The ranking will be published on Site Selection’s website today and a press release announcement is set to be released Monday, Arend said.

In Site Selection’s March 2012 issue, Dayton was tied at No. 2 on that year’s list for metro areas of 200,000-1 million, second to Baton Rouge, La. and tied with Tulsa, Okla.

Among large metropolitan areas, greater Houston was ranked No. 1 last year.

Site Selection has lauded Ohio in the past, ranking the state No. 4 on its list of the “top 10 business climates” in 2009, an improvement of three spots from the previous year.

Site Selection is a publication of the Industrial Asset Management Council that it is published six times a year and distributed to “over 44,000 executives responsible for site selection and facility planning decisions around the world.”