America the Beautiful is a little more so in this state.
For the fourth consecutive year, the State of Deseret has been ranked the No. 1 state in the US News & World Report’s 2026 Best States rankings.
Each state was ranked in categories including education, economy, environment, crime and health care. While Utah didn’t take the first spot in any specific ranking, its overall high scores across the board helped the Beehive State retain its position.
South Dakota was named the runner-up, followed by Minnesota, North Dakota and Nebraska filling in the Top 5 overall states, making 4 out of the 5 states located in the Mountain West or Upper MidWest.
The best state project started in 2017 and analyzes the states across 71 metrics across eight categories: Economy, Crime & Corrections, Education, Infrastructure, Natural Environment, Fiscal Stability, Healthcare and Opportunity.
Utah ranks in the top 4 in Economy, Fiscal Stability and Infrastructure, but performed highly enough across the board to boost its overall performance to first place.
Utah has been in the Top 5 Economy category each year, as its economy is diversified in technology, financial services, tourism, aerospace and energy. They typically have low unemployment and high job growth. They are also the youngest state in the nation and reap the benefits of energetic workers.
The Dakotas showed the biggest gains in the year, with South Dakota climbing from No. 8 overall to No. 2 and North Dakota from 12 to 4, as both states had improved spots in health care, education, fiscal ability and economic performance.
New Hampshire ranked 1st in Crime & Corrections, specifically having the best public safety outcomes and coming in 3rd for Corrections Outcomes.
Texas was No. 1 in Economy, specifically being No. 1 in Growth. Their job growth is a 2.3% annual increase, with the national average being only 0.9%.
Colorado took the top spot in Education, being in the top 10 in both higher education and Pre-K-12, with their graduation debt per student being lower than the national average by over $10,000.
Wyoming for Fiscal Stability, coming in first in short-term fiscal stability. They received a 320.2 in liquidity, with the national average being 91.6.
Hawaii ranked first in both Healthcare and National Environment. Only 4.9% of their population is without health insurance, with the national average being 11.3%. They ranked first in healthcare quality, second in healthcare access and third in public health.
They also won for the best National Environment. They came in the top spot for air and water quality, and only have 19 days annually with unhealthy air quality, with the national average being 152 days.
Nevada ranked highest in Infrastructure for being in the Top 10 in internet access, transportation and energy categories overall.
Vermont won in Opportunity, having its poverty rate (9%) lower than the national average (12.1%) and ranking first in the nation in Equality.
Among the nation’s largest states, Florida was the only one to crack the overall Top 10, finishing eighth, despite Texas having the top-ranked economy with continued population and job growth. California and New York did not finish among the top 10 overall, landing in 35th and 23rd, respectively.
And in the very last No. 50 spot came Louisiana, which came in last place in Crime & Corrections and in 43rd place or lower in every other category.
The full rankings list can be found here.
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