While admittedly not a super-scientific study, POLITICO MAGAZINE has come out with their list of the best and worst states to live in, and the results are certainly interesting.
With this in mind, Politico Magazine rounded up 14 different state rankings from reputable sources like the Census Bureau, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the FBI, and on important factors such as high school graduation rates, per capita income, life expectancy and crime rate. Then we averaged out each state’s 14 rankings to come up with a master list—atop which sits none other than New Hampshire. The approach isn’t scientific or comprehensive (hey, neither was Mencken’s), and not all states are created equal—California’s economy is the world’s eighth largest, for instance, and Texas’s population outranks that of most countries. We also hold no grudges against the State of Mississippi, which came in last not just overall but on four of the individual lists, and certainly don’t attribute its woes to “hordes of barbaric peasants,” as Mencken did. But given that eight of the lowest-ranking states on our list overlap with the bottom 10 on his, maybe less has changed in the past 83 years than you’d think.
It’s worth noting that 7 of the 10 best states to live in according to POLITICO MAGAZINE have Democratic governors.
1 New Hampshire Maggie Hassan (D)
2 Minnesota Mark Dayton (D)
3 Vermont Peter Shumlin (D)
4 Utah Gary Herbert (R)
5 Massachusetts Deval Patrick (D)
6 Wyoming Matthew Mead (R)
7 ColoradoJohn Hickenlooper (D)
8 Iowa Terry Branstand (R)
9 Washington Jay Inslee (D)
10 Connecticut Dannel Malloy (D)
Not surprisingly (or surprisingly, depending on your perspective) 7 of the 10 worst states to live in have Republican governors.
41 Oklahoma Mary Fallin (R)
42 Georgia Nathan Deal (R)
43 West Virginia Earl Ray Tomblin (D)
44 Kentucky Steve Beshear (D)
45 South Carolina Nikki Haley (R)
46 District of Columbia (tie) Vincent Gray (D, mayor)
47 Alabama Robert Bentley (R)
48 Tennessee Bill Haslam (R)
49 Arkansas Mike Beebe (D)
50 Louisiana Bobby Jindal (R)
51 Mississippi Phil Bryant (R)
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