CT Is The 20th Best State In The Country In U.S. News Ranking

CONNECTICUT — A new ranking from U.S. News & World Report ranks Connecticut as the 20th best overall in terms of meeting the needs of its citizens.

The rankings, released Tuesday, measure how well states serve residents across 70 metrics in eight categories: the economy, fiscal stability, education, health care, infrastructure, natural environment, opportunity, and crime and corrections.

Weighting of the categories was based on a survey of what matters most to people, with health care and education weighted the most heavily.

Here’s where Connecticut ranked in the categories:

Health care, No. 3
Education, No. 8
Economy, No. 17
Fiscal stability, No. 49
Infrastructure, No. 28
Natural environment, No. 21
Crime and corrections, No. 6
Opportunity, No. 47

The U.S. is the "Land of Opportunity," which makes Connecticut an outlier, according to U.S. News & World Report; its editors ranked it only No. 47 in that category. The purse-string minders in Hartford also took a beating from the magazine's editors, who ranked the state No. 49 in "fiscal stability," ahead of only Illinois. But in the key categories of health care, education and crime and corrections, the state shone brightly in the Top 10.

The 10 best states, according to the sixth annual edition of the ranking, are:

1. Utah
2. New Hampshire
3. Nebraska
4. Minnesota
5. Idaho
6. Iowa
7. Vermont
8. Washington
9. Florida
10. Massachusetts

The lowest-ranked state is Louisiana. Other states that are ranked among the bottom include New Mexico, Mississippi, Arkansas, West Virginia, Alaska, Alabama and Oklahoma.

Read more about the Best States methodology.