CA Ranks Dead Last In This Important Metric: US News

CALIFORNIA — A new ranking released Tuesday by U.S. News & World Report says California is the 37th best overall in meeting the diverse needs of its residents.

The rankings, which U.S. News first launched in 2017, assess the states across eight categories and 71 metrics. Here’s where California ranked in each of them:

Health care: 7th
Education: 24th
Natural environment: 24th
Opportunity: 50th
Economy: 32nd
Crime and corrections: 38th
Infrastructure: 35th
Fiscal stability: 42nd

California ranked last in the country in the Opportunity category, mostly due to its low affordability. It ranked best in Health Care, which was the only category in the Top 10 or 20. Its high ranking is due to a high ranking in Public Health, for which it ranked 4th in the country. It ranked toward the middle of the pack in most other categories.

Utah topped the list for the third consecutive year. The state has never slipped below the top five in the economy category in the history of the Best States rankings, U.S. News said. Here’s the top 10:

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

U.S. News said many of the top-ranked states put a big priority on education — the highest-weighted category of the 2025 rankings based on new survey results showing what areas Americans believe their states should prioritize, and which issues present the most pressing concerns.

Also Read: This Is Why CA Gas Could Hit $8.44 Per Gallon In 2026

Five of the top 10 states overall also placed among the top 10 in education, while just one — Massachusetts — did the same in the category carrying the second-highest weight, health care.

Even high-performing states don’t excel in every rankings category, U.S. News said.

Utah, for example, ranks near the bottom for environment (No. 48), burdened by poor scores for industrial toxins and pollution health risk. Florida — among the nation’s worst performers for housing affordability and income equality — ranks 47th for opportunity, and South Dakota ranks 46th for health care, weighed down in part by a U.S. News assessment of hospital quality in the state.

Also Read: California Lost 11,600 Net Jobs In March

There was little movement among low performers in the rankings, which U.S. News said were concentrated primarily in the South but also included states in the West, Midwest and Northeast, as well as Alaska.

The lowest-ranked state is Louisiana. Other states in the bottom 10 are Alaska, Mississippi, New Mexico, West Virginia, Alabama, Arkansas, Michigan, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania.

» Read more about the Best States methodology.