Best And Worst States For Women: Alabama Ranks No. 47

BIRMINGHAM, AL — The #MeToo and #TimesUp movements may not have reached Alabama and four other Southern states that finished at the bottom of a study of the best and worst states for women released Monday. Alabama ranked No. 47 in the WalletHub study, released during National Women’s History Month.

Joining Alabama at the bottom of the list are Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi and Oklahoma. With the exception of Nevada, all other states in the bottom 10 were in the South.

The five best states for women to live are Minnesota, Massachusetts, Vermont, North Dakota and Wisconsin.

In its study, 2018’s Best & Worst States for Women, WalletHub looked at data ranging from women’s earnings, the percentage of women-owned businesses and unemployment rates to preventative health care, female homicide rates, and the incidence of rape and stalking in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Alabama ranked No. 50 in life expectancy, and ranked at No. 47 for high school graduation rates. The state ranked second-to-last in the category: Women's Economic and Social Well-Being. Louisiana ranked last in the category.

Some other findings:

• The District of Columbia, home to the U.S. Capitol, ranked 15th as the best place for women to live. When adjusted for inflation, women there had the highest median wage of $32,355, compared to $16,843 in Hawaii, which had the lowest rate.
• D.C. women were also much more politically involved than women in Hawaii, voting in the 2016 presidential election at a rate of 77.2 percent, 1.6 times higher than in Hawaii, where only 49.3 percent of women voted.
• New Hampshire had the lowest share of women living in poverty — only 9.4 percent, which was 2.6 times lower than in Mississippi, which finished 51st in that ranking. Nearly one-fourth of Mississippi women live in poverty.
• Alaska is a good place for women who want to own their own businesses. It had the highest share of women-owned businesses at 22.87 percent, which was 1.6 times higher than in South Dakota, where only 14.04 percent
• Most women in Massachusetts have health insurance with an uninsured rate of 2.4 percent, which is 7.7 times lower than Texas, which finished dead last with an uninsured rate of 18.5 percent for women.

The ranking used data from the federal Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the National Center for Educational Statistics, as well as the Council for Community and Economic Research, U.S. News and World Report, Institute for Health Metrics and its own research. Read more about the methodology.

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