Best States 2021: How They Were Ranked

The Best States rankings from U.S. News & World Report show how each of the 50 U.S. states ranks in 71 metrics across eight categories. The data behind the rankings aims to show how well states serve their residents in a variety of ways.

In calculating the rankings, each of the eight categories was assigned weightings based on the average of three years of data from an annual national survey that asked nearly 70,000 people to prioritize each subject in their state:

Equal weight was assigned to elements within each category. Those weights are:

Health Care

Education

Economy

Infrastructure

Opportunity

Fiscal Stability

Crime & Corrections

Natural Environment

Note: Percentages may not total 100% due to rounding.

From there, U.S. News created an index score for each metric for each state. In each metric, the state that performed the best in the metric was given 100 points and the state that performed the worst was given 0 points. States between these were indexed proportionally. After translating raw data to index scores for each state in each metric, metric index scores were averaged to determine subcategory scores and rankings. Then, subcategory scores were averaged to determine category scores and rankings.

For the overall ranking, U.S. News created a weighted average of the eight category rankings using the weight for each category as determined by the survey, and then ranked the outcome. We chose this method so that the overall ranking would not be skewed by large differences in scores at a metric level.

The Survey

For the weighting of the Best States rankings, U.S. News wanted to use an objective measure reflecting the priorities of citizens for their state governments. An annual survey asked Americans how satisfied they were with various state government services and where they thought their state governments should focus resources. The weights for the 2021 Best States rankings are based on the average of responses from three surveys: one conducted in fall 2017 that included 20,100 respondents from all 50 states, a second conducted in the winter of 2018-19 that included 23,400 respondents from all 50 states, and a third conducted in the winter of 2020-21 that included 26,300 respondents, also from all 50 states. Survey respondents were adults age 18 and older who collectively represent all U.S. adults. The survey results were weighted to be representative of the country's population across all ages, genders, ethnicities and household incomes.

The categories for the rankings aligned with the survey questions. We based the weightings for the categories on a question that asked respondents to rank the categories, such as health and education, from 1 to 8 (1 being most important) in order of what their home state's priorities should be. Respondents were also asked about their satisfaction with their state's performance in these categories, and if they felt their state was not adequately funding these areas. The weights for these were calculated from the average rank for each among the respondents.

The Data

In order to select metrics for the project, we consulted experts in each of the categories for guidance. These are the criteria we used in choosing metrics:

In developing the Best States rankings, data was pulled from the following sources:

U.S. Census Bureau

ACT

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

The College Board

The Council for Community and Economic Research

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Federal Communications Commission

Fortune

The Institute for College Access & Success

Medicaid.gov

The Mercatus Center at George Mason University

Moody's Analytics

National Assessment of Educational Progress

National Center for Education Statistics

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

Pew Charitable Trusts

PwC/CB Insights MoneyTree™ Report

Tax Policy Center

U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis

U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

U.S. Department of Agriculture

U.S. Department of Energy

U.S. Department of Transportation

U.S. Energy Information Administration

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

U.S. News Best Hospitals

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

For each set, we used the most recent data available as of January 2021. Because datasets have different schedules for updates, data comes from different years and months. This allowed us to pull many more data points. Data will be updated for the 2022 relaunch of Best States.

In some cases, data for certain states are missing because not all states provide data – or reliable data – for all metrics. We omitted metrics with missing data from the calculation of rankings for those states.

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

Best States didn't rank Washington, D.C., or U.S. territories such as Puerto Rico. Data for Washington, D.C., was included for national averages. For more information, please see the Frequently Asked Questions.

You can see all the raw data behind the Best States rankings on the Data Explorer.