Maybe if just Florida beat us, we’d be less offended, but Wisconsin, freaking New Jersey (and sadly even more states) beat us out for the best state to live in?! Now, that’s just not right.
A new study from WalletHub compared each of the 50 states and analyzed their livability by 51 key factors such education rate, income growth, quality hospitals and more under five dimensions: affordability, economy, education and health, quality of life, and safety.
We’re just going to break it to you quickly, New York didn’t even make the top five. In fact, Massachusetts, Florida, New Jersey, Utah and New Hampshire did. To be honest, we barely made the top 10, landing right at the ninth spot.
Each of the five key dimensions held a point value of 20 to reach a perfect score (meaning perfect living conditions) of 100. New York State had a total score of 58.17. For comparison, Massachusetts, the best state to live in, had the highest total score of 60.52.
But let’s get into the nitty gritty of why our state rival, New Jersey, somehow managed its way into the top three best states to live in and we didn’t. According to WalletHub, New Jersey holds the highest median household income in the country with the second lowest median debt. Moreover, New Jersey ranks lowly for premature deaths, obesity and crime rates.
New York’s weakest scores were quality of life and safety. These dimensions consider things like commute time, hours worked, traffic congestion, violent and property crime rate, etc.
“When deciding on a place to move, you should first consider financial factors like the cost of living, housing prices and job availability,” shared Cassandra Happe, a WalletHub analyst. “Many states have strong economies, though, so you should also consider a wide variety of other factors, such as how where you live will impact your health and safety, and whether you will have adequate access to activities that you enjoy. If you have children, a robust education system is also key.” On the topic of children, this suburb just outside of New York was selected as one of the best places to raise a family in the state.
For more information on the best U.S. states to live in, you can read the whole study here.