Here’s Where RI Ranks In New U.S. News Best States List

RHODE ISLAND — A new ranking released Tuesday by U.S. News & World Report says Rhode Island is the 24th best state 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 Rhode Island ranked in each of them:

Health care: No. 4
Education: No. 38
Natural environment: No. 8
Opportunity: No. 24
Economy: No. 16
Crime and corrections: No. 6
Infrastructure: No. 45
Fiscal stability: No. 45.

Rhode Island's best marks came in health care (No. 4), crime and corrections (No. 6), and natural environment (No. 8). The high health care grade comes as no surprise. In the most recent Leapfrog Group hospital rankings, five hospitals in Rhode Island received "A" grades. Rhode Island has generally had lower crime rates than other states as well.

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.

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.

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.

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