New study ranks all 50 states. See where yours landed - usatoday.com

What the report says

USA Today reported that U.S. News published its 2026 Overall Best State Rankings during the week of July 27, rating all 50 states across a broad set of public-policy and quality-of-life measures. The ranking placed Utah at No. 1 overall, followed by South Dakota, Minnesota, North Dakota and Nebraska. The lowest-ranked states were Arkansas, Michigan, New Mexico, Mississippi, Alaska and Louisiana, with Louisiana listed at No. 50.

According to the report, Utah’s top overall position was supported by high marks in several areas, including No. 2 rankings for economy and fiscal stability, No. 4 for infrastructure and No. 6 for education. The state ranked lower in some other categories, including No. 48 for natural environment. Louisiana, the bottom-ranked state, was listed near the bottom in multiple categories, including economy, natural environment, infrastructure, education, health care, opportunity and crime and corrections.

USA Today said U.S. News based the rankings on 71 metrics in eight categories: education, health care, economy, infrastructure, opportunity, fiscal stability, natural environment, and crime and corrections. The methodology weighted some categories more heavily than others, with health care and education carrying more weight than crime and corrections and natural environment. States received point-based scores within categories, with the top performer receiving 100 points and the lowest receiving zero.

The article also noted that U.S. News incorporated survey data from more than 56,000 people nationwide between 2018 and 2025 about satisfaction with state performance in the ranked areas. Such rankings can influence public debate by comparing states on measurable indicators, though they depend on the selected metrics and weighting choices used by the publisher.