Massachusetts beat out its fellow 49 states to be named the best to reside in this year, WalletHub found.
The Bay State landed that No. 1 spot on the 2024 edition of WalletHub’s “Best States to Live in” list thanks to its 60.52 overall score. The personal finance website’s yearly ranking came out Monday.
The health care and education available in Massachusetts contributed to its prime placement, with its rankings for things like good public transportation and a low property crime rate playing a part too, WalletHub reported. For education and health, the state topped all others.
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey reacted to the state’s No. 1 overall position in an X post.
“Already the best place to live and Team Massachusetts is working hard to make it even better,” she said Monday.
This followed Massachusetts receiving first-place in 2023 and the year before that, according to reports.
WalletHub used dozens of “key indicators of livability” within five main categories to create its list. The five main categories were affordability, economy, education & health, quality of life and safety, it said.
The 10 states at the top of WalletHub’s 2024 ranking included:
1. Massachusetts
2. Florida
3. New Jersey
4. Utah
5. New Hampshire
6. Idaho
7. Pennsylvania
8. Wisconsin
9. New York
10. Wyoming
A couple of the other states within the top 10 for “Best States to Live in” for this year scored No. 1 in categories that WalletHub leaned on to formulate its rankings.
Overall third-place finisher New Jersey, for example, got No. 1 for safety, according to the personal finance website. That city previously held the top overall spot in 2021, according to an NBC New York report from the time.
First-place for quality of life went to the nearby state of New York this year.
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“When deciding on a place to move, you should first consider financial factors like the cost of living, housing prices and job availability,” WalletHub analyst Cassandra Happe was quoted as saying. “Many states have strong economies, though, so you should also consider a wide variety of other factors, such as how where you live will impact your health and safety, and whether you will have adequate access to activities that you enjoy.”
Meanwhile, all the way down at No. 50 was Louisiana, according to WalletHub.
There was a 19.21-point difference between Massachusetts’ overall score and the 41.31 that Louisiana received.
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