Washington Shows up in the Top 10 of Best States in America

There's been a lot of "state ranking" lists lately and now we have yet another one, this time published by U.S. News and World Report. I consider U.S. News and World Report to be slightly more reputable than some of the other organizations that have done these kinds of rankings so let's take a look 

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How was it done? 

The rankings were based on categories like crime, education, healthcare, natural environment, economy, fiscal stability, infrastructure, and opportunity. Each of those categories was given an individual score and then combined for a total score for the state. 

How did Washington rank? 

Over the last couple of years that U.S. news and World Report was doing this ranking system Washington state had been slipping, but in this report, it went up a notch and placed at #9. 

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According to seattletimes.com,
‘The rankings are based entirely on quantitative data from government and other sources, factoring in 71 metrics across eight broad categories: healthcare, education, economy, crime and corrections, infrastructure, opportunity, fiscal stability, and natural environment. 
Among those eight, Washington’s best showing was in the natural environment category, in which the state ranked seventh. This category measures aspects of air and water quality, as well as pollution. 

Washington state also wound up in the top ten in two other categories, education and infrastructure.  

The full breakout for Washington state. 

Washington ranked #26 in crimes and corrections. 

#8 in education. 

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#14 in healthcare. 

#7 in natural environment. 

#19 in economy. 

#26 in fiscal stability. 

#8 in infrastructure. 

#34 in opportunity. 

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The number one best state overall, Utah. 

Utah scored in the top ten, in categories like crime and corrections, education, economy, fiscal stability, and infrastructure. 

The state that scored the lowest. 

In any kind of study like this, somebody has to come in last, and unfortunately, Louisiana placed 50th in this survey. 

I've always wanted to go to Louisiana, especially New Orleans, for the music and the food. Unfortunately, music and food don't rate high in this survey.