Best States: Frequently Asked Questions

What is Best States?

Best States is a unique rankings and news analysis platform designed to inform citizens, business leaders and policymakers alike about what's working and what needs improvement across the country.

The project includes rankings that measure the 50 states overall across eight different categories: health care, education, economy, opportunity, infrastructure, crime & corrections, fiscal stability and natural environment. The rankings are derived from 71 metrics and thousands of data points.

In addition to rankings, the platform offers expert commentary, news analysis and storytelling to highlight the issues, insights and best practices that matter most for states.

Why rank states?

U.S. News & World Report created the Best States rankings to provide a platform for citizens, government leaders and business executives alike to compare and better understand the issues, insights and best practices that matter most for states.

Like U.S. News' Best Countries franchise and the Healthiest Communities platform, Best States gives readers a way to analyze the world around them. It shows which state policies are working and which can be improved, and encourages citizens to interact more with their governments to promote positive change.

How is this different from other state rankings?

Other state rankings tend to focus on a very narrow set of issues, such as the business or tax environment of a state or the education and health care offered there.

U.S. News Best States, launched in 2017, is the first comprehensive effort to gauge how states perform across a wide array of issues. This project provides citizens with a full picture of state performance.

How were the states ranked?

The overall Best States ranking is determined by each of the 50 U.S. states' rankings in eight main categories: health care, education, economy, infrastructure, opportunity, fiscal stability, crime & corrections and natural environment. The rankings are based on thousands of data points gathered by U.S. News, largely from government and publicly available sources.

The categories and subcategories used in the ranking are:

Health Care

Education

Economy

Infrastructure

Opportunity

Fiscal Stability

Crime & Corrections

Natural Environment

What were the respective weights of the inputs and why were they chosen?

The overall Best States ranking is determined by how each of the 50 U.S. states ranks in our eight categories. The weights of the categories are as follows:

The weights of the category rankings are determined by an annual online survey of thousands of people across the country. The survey is meant to determine which factors are the most important to people about their state. For more on the survey, weighting and inputs, including for subcategories, see the Best States methodology.

Why did my state perform so well?

Each state's performance in the overall ranking correlates directly with its ranking in each of the eight categories, including health care, education, economy, infrastructure, opportunity, fiscal stability, crime & corrections and natural environment. The overall ranking takes a holistic view of all of these category rankings to determine which states are best for their citizens in all aspects. If a state performed well in several categories, especially those weighted more heavily, it is likely to rank highly overall.

Why did my state perform so poorly?

Each state's overall ranking relies on its performance in all eight categories. Since these categories are not weighted equally, a state could rank highly in one or more categories but not overall. For example, if a state ranks near the top for natural environment, weighted at 8.99%, it still could perform poorly overall if it ranks near the bottom for health care and education, the most heavily weighted categories. Also, state rankings are relative; a low ranking doesn't necessarily mean a state is failing but that other states outperformed it in that category or metric.

Why did my state's rank change?

U.S. News is committed to building the most comprehensive and current analysis of all 50 states. To that end, we continually assess the data used in the rankings, updating to include the most recent data releases and reviewing the methods used to evaluate them. Feedback from industry experts, government officials and state residents alike informed a methodology review process that has resulted in a number of changes over time. The 2021 Best States rankings should therefore be viewed independently from prior years' rankings.

Are the rankings objective and fair?

To ensure that the Best States rankings are objective and fair, U.S. News weighted the eight major categories based on results from representative surveys designed to determine what factors Americans believe their home states should prioritize each year.

Within each category, the metrics were selected objectively in collaboration with experts, using specific criteria. Among these considerations were the comprehensiveness, reliability and timeliness of the data reflecting each metric. The project used publicly available government data when possible and vetted proprietary data in cases where public data was not available.

Why wasn't Washington, D.C., included in the rankings?

For this ranking, U.S. News looked at the 50 states and didn't include the District of Columbia or U.S. territories such as Puerto Rico. One reason was data availability, as many state datasets do not include these locations. Values for D.C. are often skewed because of its smaller population, making meaningful comparisons between D.C. and other states difficult. However, D.C. was included in national averages for each metric.

How often will the rankings be updated?

U.S. News plans to update the Best States rankings each year.

Is the data used for the rankings reliable?

The rankings are primarily based on publicly available data from government agencies. Examples include the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Department of Energy and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

How recent is the data?

U.S. News used the most recent data available as of January 2021. Not all datasets were released at the same time, since they are created throughout the year.

Are there any ties?

Ties were rare in the dataset because we calculated scores to the maximum amount of decimal places without rounding. In some cases – such as government credit rating, where a state’s score stemmed from a letter grade – ties were possible.

How did culture and history factor into the rankings?

The Best States rankings concentrate on measurable citizen outcomes and factors that a government can influence with policy. Because of this, we didn't include factors such as culture or history of a state.

How has the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the rankings?

COVID-19 is a significant challenge that continues to profoundly impact all states nationwide. While we do make COVID-19 data available in dashboards to help users understand this evolving situation, we do not include this data in the rankings.

The datasets that are used in the rankings predominantly came from a period predating the pandemic, with the exceptions of Fortune 1000 and Cost of Living Index data for the year 2020. Therefore, the bulk of the analysis is from a “pre-COVID-19” perspective.

Why were no rankings published in 2020?

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. News postponed publishing new rankings for a period of time to focus our editorial coverage more directly on the public health issue and how it has impacted states across the country.

Who can I contact with questions?

For questions about Best States, please email pr@usnews.com.