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WalletHub ranked the best and worst states to live in. Where does yours fall?


WalletHub on Monday released its "Best States to Live In" list, ranking all 50 states in a variety of categories, with Massachusetts ranking first and New Mexico ranking last overall.

Methodology

For the list, WalletHub gathered data form a variety of sources, including the U.S. Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, CDC, CMS, and the American Medical Association.

WalletHub then compared all 50 states across five dimensions and 51 total metrics:

  • Affordability, including housing costs, median annual property taxes, and median annual household income
  • Economy, including unemployment rate, underemployment rate, and median debt per median earnings
  • Education and health, including quality of public school system, high school graduation rate, share of obese adults, and share of physically inactive adults
  • Quality of life, including average hours worked per week, average commute time, traffic congestion, and public transportation access
  • Safety, including violent crime rate, property crime rate, and total law enforcement employees per capita

Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the most favorable living conditions. WalletHub then determined each state's weighted average across all metrics to calculate its overall score and used that score to rank the states.

The best (and worst) states to live in

According to WalletHub, the 10 best states to live in are:

1.       Massachusetts

2.       Idaho

3.       New Jersey

4.       Wisconsin

5.       Minnesota

6.       Florida

7.       New Hampshire

8.       Utah

9.       New York

10.   Pennsylvania

Meanwhile, according to WalletHub, the 10 worst states to live in are:

50. New Mexico

49. Louisiana

48. Arkansas

47. Mississippi

46. Alaska

45. Nevada

44. South Carolina

43. Oklahoma

42. West Virginia

41. Alabama

WalletHub also ranked each state based on its score in each of the five categories:

  • Affordability: Alabama ranked first while California ranked last
  • Economy: Vermont ranked first while Louisiana ranked last
  • Education and Health: Massachusetts ranked first while Mississippi ranked last
  • Quality of life: New York ranked first while Alaska ranked last
  • Safety: New Jersey ranked first while Washington ranked last

In addition, WalletHub ranked all 50 states on specific metrics and found that:

  • Iowa had the lowest housing costs while California had the highest
  • New Hampshire had the lowest percentage of its population living in poverty while Mississippi had the highest
  • Idaho had the highest income growth while Alaska had the lowest
  • Massachusetts had the highest insured population while Texas had the lowest
  • Utah had the lowest average weekly work hours while Alaska had the highest
  • New Hampshire had the lowest crime rate while New Mexico had the highest

(McCann, WalletHub, 8/11)


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