Best States Ranked: Where Does Florida Stand?

Massachusetts is the No. 1 state in the nation, according to a brand new ranking rolled out by U.S. News & World Report. The Sunshine State comes in at the middle of the pack, but it does earn high marks in a few key categories measured in the study.

The inaugural rankings were compiled by evaluating all 50 states across a range of criteria from education and healthcare to infrastructure and the economy. The rankings were developed using McKinsey and Company’s “Leading States Index,” which combines thousands of data points across 68 specific metrics.

After Massachusetts, the best states are New Hampshire, Minnesota, North Dakota and Washington. Louisiana came in at No. 50 with Mississippi just ahead in the number 49 spot.

The 68 metrics in the “Leading States Index” were separated into 20 groups, which were further arranged into the following seven categories:

• Health Care
• Education
• Infrastructure
• Crime and Corrections
• Opportunity
• Economy
• Government

All categories were weighted based on a national survey that asked people to prioritize seven categories in their state, such as education, crime and others in the order of most important and least important. Health care and education received the highest weightings nationwide.

In the seven categories, Massachusetts is No. 1 in education, Hawaii is No. 1 in health care, Oregon is No. 1 in infrastructure, Vermont is No. 1 in crime and corrections, New Hampshire is No. 1 in opportunity, Colorado is No. 1 in economy and Indiana ranks No. 1 for government.

So, just where does Florida stand? According to the rankings, the Sunshine State is the 24th best in the country.

Here’s how Florida ranked across all seven categories:

• Health Care: 31
• Education: 29
• Infrastructure: 11
• Crime and Corrections: 37
• Opportunity: 43
• Economy: 7
• Government: 9

Florida did earn some Top 10 marks within a few subcategories:

Public Health

• Low mortality rate – 6

Education

• Higher education – 1
• 2-year college graduation rate – 3
• Tuition and fees – 2

Crime and Corrections

• Equality in juvenile jailing – 6
• Low prison overpopulation – 1

Infrastructure

• Transportation – 4
• Bridge quality – 3
• Road quality – 6

Energy

• Power grid reliability – 1

Equality

• Education equality by race – 8
• Employment equality by race – 4

Economy

• Growth – 3
• GDP growth – 5
• Growth of young population – 5
• Net migration – 2

To read Florida’s full ranking report and learn more about how the study was conducted, visit U.S. News & World Report online.

Patch's Lanning Taliaferro contributed to this report.

Patch file photo