The Jan. 13 report compared the 50 states across five dimensions: family fun, health and safety, education and child care, affordability and socio-economics. Each state was graded on a 100-point scale with a score of 100 showing the most favorable conditions for family life.
For health and safety, Vermont ranked first and Mississippi ranked last.
Here are the top 10 best and worst states to raise a family and their total scores.
Best
- Massachusetts — 68.88
- Minnesota — 63.36
- North Dakota — 61.87
- Nebraska — 61.03
- New Hampshire — 60.03
- New York — 59.97
- Illinois — 59.17
- Wisconsin — 58.85
- Maine — 58.62
- Connecticut — 58.15
Worst
- New Mexico — 32.40
- Mississippi — 35.46
- West Virginia — 37.22
- Nevada — 39.33
- Oklahoma — 41.14
- Alabama — 41.21
- Arkansas — 41.44
- Louisiana — 41.99
- South Carolina — 42.57
- Arizona — 44.43
