Iowa Plummets in Rankings of Best States

Iowa will always be tops to us, even if this new survey doesn't think so.

U.S. News & World Report put out its "Best States" rankings, and after being #1 last year, Iowa has dropped a bit. To 14th overall. Quite a fall there, isn't it?

Health care, education, economy, infrastructure, opportunity, fiscal stability, crime and correction, and natural environment were the broader categories used in the rankings.

In terms of "affordability of opportunity", we are the champions. Our next highest individual categories were opportunity (2nd) and education (9th). The Hawkeye State placed fourth in health care access and energy infrastructure.

We've got a ways to go on internet access and transportation (39th in both). We were also very low in water and air quality, coming in 41st and the lowest rank for Iowa, at 44th, was in "business environment".

Who were the overall Top 5 states on the list? Washington state, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Utah, and Vermont. You can see the full report and study the methodologies behind it here.

[Via U.S. News, CBS2]