For the third year in a row, the Beehive State has topped the list of America's best US states to live in, per US News & World Report's annual rankings. To suss out the most (and least) competitive contenders, the outlet looked at all 50 Nifty using 70-plus metrics in eight categories, including health care, education, natural environment, economy, opportunity, fiscal stability, infrastructure, and crime. The winner: Utah, which does especially well on the economics side of things. "Our economic structure is similar to the US, so when the US suffers, so do we," says the University of Utah's Natalie Gochnour. "But ... as a general rule, our lows are higher and our highs are higher. In the last two and a half decades, Utah's economy has outperformed the nation ... and when we've had downturns, we have been able to rebound much more quickly in our state." Check out the top and bottom 10 states:
Highest-Ranked States
- Utah
- New Hampshire
- Idaho
- Minnesota
- Nebraska
- Florida
- Vermont
- South Dakota
- Massachusetts
- Washington