Best States For Raising A Family: How Alabama Ranks

BIRMINGHAM, AL — We consider many factors when deciding where to raise our families — child care, cost of living, how much there is to do. WalletHub took these factors into account when it compiled its 2020 list of Best & Worst States To Raise A Family.

According to this year’s list, Alabama is one of the worst states in which to raise a family. Alabama ranked 46th on the list with a total score of 36.78.

To compile the data, WalletHub compared the 50 states across 50 key indicators of family-friendliness. The data set ranges from median family salary to housing affordability to unemployment rate. Each state received individual rankings in five dimensions drawn from the key indicators before a weighted average score was calculated to determine the state’s overall ranking.

Alabama earned the following rankings:

• Family Fun Rank: 48
• Health & Safety Rank: 44
• Education & Childcare Rank: 45
• Affordability Rank: 22
• Socioeconomics Rank: 38

According to the rankings, Minnesota is the best place to raise a family, followed by Massachusetts and North Dakota.

As for the worst place to raise a family, New Mexico came in at the bottom of the list, preceded by Mississippi and Louisiana.

According to Hilary Seltz, a professor of early childhood education at the University of Alaska Anchorage, families need to have access to high-quality and affordable child care preschool options that work with families to ensure children succeed later in life.

“This provides the foundation for greater learning and achievement. You wouldn’t build a building and start on the fifth floor,” Seltz noted in the study. “When families have healthy food options, safe housing, parks and outdoor spaces to play together, resources for families to find support, resources for parenting and relationship building, families will be strong.”

To make a state more attractive to families, authorities should focus on education — offering publicly-funded kindergarten, increasing teacher pay and implementing college savings programs, among other incentives, said Erin Casey, an assistant professor of early child development for University of Oklahoma.

View the full list of Best & Worst States To Raise A Family at WalletHub.com.