Here's Where Colorado Ranks In Country: U.S. News

DENVER, CO – Colorado made it into the Top 10 in a new ranking of "Best States" in the country, according to U.S. News & World Report’s third annual best states rankings. The Centennial State ranked high on U.S. News’ list but received poor in several individual categories, including "natural environment," which evaluates a state based on "drinking water quality, urban air quality and total toxic chemical pollution per square mile."

According to U.S. News, Colorado’s economy was ranked No. 1 in the nation thanks to a mix of tourism and natural resources extraction.

Washington state ranked No. 1 and also ranks in the top five for health care, economy, infrastructure and education, U.S. News says. Both Washington and Colorado were praised for taking advantage of legalized marijuana and "pot tourism" that brought in millions of dollars in tax revenue.

Neighboring Nebraska ranked ahead of Colorado coming in at number 9.

The top-ranking states were:

1. Washington
2. New Hampshire
3. Minnesota
4. Utah
5. Vermont
6. Maryland
7. Virginia
8. Massachusetts
9. Nebraska
10. Colorado

Here’s how Colorado performed in individual categories:

Health Care: 12
Education: 11
Economy: 1
Opportunity: 8
Infrastructure: 28
Crime & Corrections: 29
Fiscal Stability: 29
Natural Environment: 31

A national survey conducted by U.S. News found that just 27 percent of respondents generally agree that their state is doing all it can to help residents prosper. The survey also found that 52 percent of respondents are generally dissatisfied about the quality of education in their state, 48 percent are dissatisfied about the quality of infrastructure and 42 percent are dissatisfied about the quality of health care.

Respondents also agreed that education, infrastructure and health care are the most underfunded by state governments.

To compile the rankings, U.S. News looked at 71 metrics under eight categories. The eight rankings were weighted based on the average of three years data from a national survey that asked respondents to prioritize each category in their state. Health care, education and economy received the top three weights in the methodology. After U.S. News calculated category scores and rankings, it compiled overall rankings by creating weighted averages of the individual category rankings. (You can read the full methodology here.)

By Patch Staff Writer Dan Hampton