Anderson Economic Group LLC has developed an index ranking 35 U.S. metropolitan areas based on Amazon Inc.'s criteria for its second headquarters — and metro Detroit was near the bottom of the pack.

The East Lansing-based firm of economist Patrick Anderson's AEG HQ2 Index ranked Detroit at No. 32 among metro areas with at least 1 million residents, an international airport and nonstop flights to New York, San Fransisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C.

Using Seattle-based Amazon's public request for proposals criteria, Anderson Economic Group's index scored each metro area based access to labor and talent, ease of transportation systems and the cost of doing business. Those scores were then averaged to determine the ranking. (See the interactive map here.)

New York City scored the highest in AEG's index for meeting Amazon's criteria, followed by Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston and Atlanta.

Other Midwest cities like Cleveland, Cincinnati, Minneapolis, Indianapolis and St. Louis ranked above Detroit in the index (see methodology here).

Amazon has said access to mass transit options and connections to an international airport were critical components to its plans to plant up to 50,000 workers in a city outside of its hometown of Seattle.

Transit trips and annual hours of delay in traffic congestion per capita were taken into account when assessing a metropolitan region's ease of transportation.

Crain's has reported that metro Detroit's lack of a coordinated mass transportation system and the region's pool of available talent are believed to be shortcomings in Detroit's bid for Amazon's second home.

AEG's labor and talent index score took into account bachelor's degrees granted in the 2015-2016 school year in each metropolitan area in fields of study that include computer science and engineering, mathematics and statistics, business management, advertising and marketing.

"Our goal here is to capture those who have the particular specialized knowledge that will be required a significant portion of roles at HQ2," Anderson Economic Group's Jason Horwitz and Brian Peterson wrote in the methodology.

Horwitz is director of public policy and economic analysis at Anderson Economic Group, and Peterson is a senior analyst at the research and consulting firm.

For cost of doing business, AEG's analysis took into account business tax burden, commercial rent per square foot and labor cost based on local gross domestic product.

Amazon, the world's largest online retailer, has said it needs up to 8 million square feet of office space for the 50,000 employees it plans to house in its second headquarters city within 17 years.

Detroit's ranking in the AEG HQ2 Index was tied with Orlando and higher than Sacramento, Kansas City and San Jose.