Idaho Once Again Listed as One of the Top Ten Best States in the U.S.

U.S. News Ranks the Best States for 2024

The newest edition of the Best States rankings project features a repeat at No. 1 and a lone southern state in the top 10.

By Steven Ross Johnson
May 7, 2024
NIKI CHAN WYLIE FOR USN&WR
Onlookers view the inside of the Utah State Capitol in Salt Lake City in April. Since its inception in 2017, the Best States project from U.S. News & World Report has used thousands of data points to capture how all 50 states serve their residents.

Utah is No. 1 in U.S. News & World Report’s Best States rankings for a second straight year, with the Beehive State landing among the top 20 in seven out of eight statistical categories.

First launched in 2017, the Best States project ranks states based on their performance in the areas of health care, education, natural environment, opportunity, economy, crime and corrections, infrastructure and fiscal stability. The analysis encompasses thousands of data points across 71 metrics in eight categories to capture how the 50 states serve their residents.

As was the case in 2023, Utah’s consistency helped make it king: The state landed in the top 10 in five categories measured by U.S. News, peaking at second in education followed by No. 3 finishes in both economy and infrastructure.

And while it might not be measurable by the data, Utah is also known for another key quality.

“The people are extremely nice. You'll hear that periodically of folks that go and visit Utah,” says Ben Blau, head of the Department of Economics and Finance at Utah State University’s Jon M. Huntsman School of Business. “In fact, sometimes they're almost too nice – people get a little weirded out."

Other states in the top 5 of the rankings include New Hampshire, which improved one spot from No. 6 a year ago, and Minnesota, which climbed one spot to No.4. Washington, which ranked second in 2023 and No. 1 in 2021 and 2019, slid to No. 8 this year, though shifts in the rankings should be interpreted with caution due to methodological changes between years.

Massachusetts entered the top 10 in 2024, moving up one spot from 11 in 2023. Only one state – Wisconsin – fell out of the top 10, with the Badger State dropping from No. 8 to No. 17 in the latest rankings.

Among the 10 best states, three each were located in the West, Midwest or Northeast. One state from the South made the cut.

These Are the 10 Best States in the U.S.

  1. Utah
  2. New Hampshire
  3. Nebraska
  4. Minnesota
  5. Idaho
  6. Iowa
  7. Vermont
  8. Washington
  9. Florida
  10. Massachusetts

A common factor among the highest-ranking states was a relatively strong performance in categories containing various types of economic indicators. More than half of the top 10 states were among the top 20 performers in each of the economy, opportunity and fiscal stability categories.

2024 Best States: Overall Rankings

Alexandre Fall, a senior associate for The Pew Charitable Trusts’ state fiscal policy project, notes the South and West regions of the U.S. “have been home to the fastest-growing populations and economies in recent years.” That’s borne out in Best States data, with states like Idaho and Florida excelling in gross domestic product growth and net migration rate, helping to fuel top rankings in the growth subcategory and the economy category overall.

Among other notable findings from the rankings:

  • In a presidential election year, the top 10 states are evenly divided between red and blue based on presidential preference in the 2020 election.
  • Florida – a lightning rod in the education world – is again No. 1 in the education category, thanks in large part to its performance in the higher education subcategory.
  • Southern states make up seven of the bottom 10 states in the health care category. Three of those states have not expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, while five have.

Excelling in the Best States rankings doesn’t mean a state has to achieve No. 1 rankings across the board, and vice versa. In fact, only three top 10 states were top-ranked in a particular category: No. 2 New Hampshire was No. 1 in crime and corrections, while No. 7 Vermont was the leader in the opportunity category. No. 9 Florida was one of two states – along with No. 34 Hawaii – to be No. 1 in two Best States categories, topping both education and economy.

Meanwhile, Utah was among the poorest performers in the U.S. for natural environment (No. 46), while Florida ranked 45th for opportunity and Massachusetts ranked 46th for opportunity and 39th for fiscal stability.

Yet with some changes in placement, the same states that ranked lowest in 2023 made up the poorest-performing states in 2024. Louisiana finished at the bottom, ranking 50th for crime and corrections and 49th for economy, environment and infrastructure.

These Are the 10 Lowest-Ranked States in the U.S.

50. Louisiana

49. New Mexico

48. Mississippi

47. Arkansas

46. West Virginia

45. Alaska

44. Alabama

43. Oklahoma

42. Michigan

41. South Carolina

Still, while some of the states in the bottom 10 ranked last in various categories – including health care (Mississippi), education (New Mexico), economy (Mississippi) and infrastructure (West Virginia) – some were also among the nation’s better performers in certain categories.

West Virginia, for example, ranked No. 46 overall but was No. 16 in opportunity and No. 18 in fiscal stability, while Alaska was No. 21 in fiscal stability and Mississippi was No. 20 in natural environment.

Oklahoma, at No. 41 overall, was No. 17 in infrastructure.

Back to top