The Twin Cities have long scored high on national quality-of-life surveys comparing the region to other metro areas, but also have a reputation for high taxes. Now, the Minneapolis Regional Chamber of Commerce’s first Business Vitality Index is taking a look at the numbers, releasing its first Business Vitality Index on Thursday.

The results: Sure enough, the Twin Cities have a high quality of life, but high taxes, too. Overall, the area still ranks high as a great place to do business.

There’s no surprise to the parallels: The chamber’s index is a compilation of all kinds of rankings from other sources. The rankings mostly compared the Twin Cities metro area, or Minneapolis and St. Paul individually, with nine similar metro areas: Austin, Texas; Boston; Charlotte, N.C.; Cleveland; Denver; Phoenix; Portland, Ore.; San Diego; Seattle; and St. Louis.

The Twin Cities ranks high among its peers for having a well-educated work force and a high quality of life; with a shorter commute to work; access to the Internet; and availability of arts, entertainment and recreation businesses.

The area gets low rankings for state and local taxes per capita.

But the Twin Cities were also No. 1 on MarketWatch’s list of best metro areas for business.

Todd Klingel, the regional chamber’s president and CEO, acknowledged that the high taxes support the high quality of life. But he said it was important to ask what the proper quality of life level should be versus taxes.

“How can we maintain this quality of life at a more efficient level?” he said.