Aidan Mortensen, KOAL News
The annual report ranking the states from U.S. News and World Report was recently released and for the second consecutive year, Utah ranked #1 across the nation.
The rankings are determined through 71 metrics divided into eight categories: health care, education, economy, infrastructure, opportunity, fiscal stability, crime and corrections, and natural environment. Within these categories, Utah ranked
- 14th in health care
- 2nd in education
- 3rd in economy
- 3rd in infrastructure
- 18th in opportunity
- 6th in fiscal stability
- 9th in crime and corrections
- 46th in natural environment
Compared to last year’s rankings Utah raised in education, infrastructure, opportunity and crime and corrections. The only categories the state fell in were health care, fiscal stability and economy. Natural environment remained the same through both years.
Utah was also found to have an average household income of $89,168 compared to the national average of $74,755. In terms of poverty rate, Utah holds at 8.2% which sits below the national average of 12.6%.
Looking at education the state has a high school graduation rate of 88.2% which is over two percentage points higher than the national average of 85.9%
Outside of Utah, the top five consisted of New Hampshire, Nebraska, Minnesota and Idaho. The worst overall state was Louisiana.