Raising a healthy, stable family sometimes requires moving to a new state. And the reasons are often similar: career transitions, better schools, financial challenges or perhaps a general desire to change settings.
But wants and needs don’t always align in a particular state, which might offer, for instance, a low income-tax rate yet subpar education system.
Consequently, a family must make unnecessary sacrifices — the kinds that are easily avoided by knowing which states offer the best combination of qualities that matter most to parents and their kids.
To help with the evaluation process, WalletHub compared the 50 states across 42 key indicators of family-friendliness. Our data set ranges from median family salary to housing affordability to unemployment rate. Read on for the complete ranking, relocation advice from our panel of experts and a full description of our methodology.
Best & Worst States to Raise a Family
Overall Rank
(1 = Best) State Total Score ‘Family Fun’ Rank ‘Health & Safety’ Rank ‘Education & Child Care’ Rank ‘Affordability’ Rank ‘Socio-economics’ Rank
1 Massachusetts 63.37 6 4 9 8 16
2 Minnesota 62.46 18 5 11 12 6
3 New Hampshire 60.90 36 2 6 3 3
4 North Dakota 59.80 44 11 1 9 1
5 Vermont 58.97 45 1 3 26 5
6 Wisconsin 57.76 21 14 15 4 11
7 New York 56.73 2 19 16 30 45
8 Iowa 56.60 38 16 8 5 9
9 Nebraska 56.52 25 12 7 24 7
10 California 56.18 1 26 27 29 32
11 Connecticut 56.06 27 3 5 10 33
12 New Jersey 55.71 31 10 2 2 31
13 Washington 55.47 5 23 32 19 17
14 Colorado 55.45 12 18 37 17 13
15 Illinois 55.41 4 30 14 15 43
16 Utah 54.62 22 20 34 16 4
17 Maine 54.61 46 6 4 25 14
18 Pennsylvania 53.36 7 34 21 20 24
19 South Dakota 53.31 33 15 28 22 2
20 Texas 52.80 3 42 26 28 30
21 Virginia 52.41 28 17 17 13 18
22 Rhode Island 52.41 29 7 19 1 41
23 Ohio 51.52 15 29 35 6 34
24 Missouri 51.16 17 38 20 21 21
25 Oregon 50.61 9 21 42 35 22
26 Kansas 50.15 41 25 22 14 15
27 Montana 50.11 34 27 12 39 10
28 Wyoming 49.26 39 8 23 31 20
29 Maryland 47.85 23 40 13 18 26
30 Indiana 47.52 30 41 29 11 19
31 Delaware 47.34 43 24 10 23 27
32 Florida 47.32 10 32 38 43 40
33 Hawaii 46.89 35 13 25 50 12
34 Idaho 46.33 40 9 48 36 8
35 Michigan 46.25 42 22 46 7 25
36 Tennessee 46.20 11 39 36 46 28
37 Kentucky 45.93 26 31 24 27 38
38 North Carolina 45.88 19 37 18 47 29
39 Alaska 44.47 13 46 40 33 37
40 Arizona 41.83 14 33 47 49 36
41 Nevada 41.33 8 36 49 40 47
42 Georgia 40.87 20 48 45 32 44
43 Arkansas 40.55 48 44 30 34 23
44 South Carolina 40.40 24 43 41 42 39
45 Oklahoma 38.86 32 50 31 37 42
46 Louisiana 36.93 16 49 44 48 50
47 West Virginia 36.35 50 28 43 44 35
48 Alabama 35.75 47 47 39 41 46
49 Mississippi 33.93 49 45 33 45 48
50 New Mexico 32.68 37 35 50 38 49
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