A new survey of Best U.S. States leaves out big names like New York, California, and Texas. In fact, another high-profile state – Florida – barely cracked the list's Top Ten.
That’s the take from U.S. News “Best State Rankings”, which stacks the best states using a formula that includes health care, education, economy, infrastructure, and general lifestyle, among other factors.
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Who tops the list? None other than Utah, and for a variety of reasons, including fiscal stability, U.S. News reported.
“Since early 2020, Utah's tax revenue recovery has consistently outpaced the national trend,” says Justin Theal, a state fiscal health project officer with nonpartisan, data-focused nonprofit The Pew Charitable Trusts, in the survey’s summary. “In fact, tax revenue in Utah has outperformed nearly every state when you compare its overall collections in recent years to the state's pre-COVID growth trend.”
The Beehive state ranked highest in economic performance, earning a No. 1 score (out of 50) from the survey. It also scored high with infrastructure (No. 4) and health care (No. 7).
Washington, which ruled the roost in the last two U.S. News surveys, finished second this year with high scores in fiscal stability, infrastructure and natural environment.
Some states earned the highest survey scores in multiple areas, but didn’t make the Top 10 list. Hawaii, for example, earned top honors for health care and natural environment, but ranked abysmally in key areas like economy (No. 48) and opportunity (No. 45). That led to its ranking as the 31st-best U.S. state.
Rounding out the top five U.S. states are Idaho, Nebraska, and Minnesota. Six through 10 included New Hampshire, Iowa, Wisconsin, Vermont and Florida.
While the ranking exhibited solid geographical diversity, states west of the Mississippi River were predominant.
Meanwhile, most of the lowest-ranking states, save Florida (No. 10), Georgia (No. 21), and Texas (on the border with the lowest-ranked states at No. 35), fell to the bottom of the survey list. Louisiana held the lowest state ranking at No. 50, recording bottom-barrel scores in key areas like economy, crime and corrections, and infrastructure.
To find out where your state land on the “best states” list, visit the survey results site.
