Nation's Best States: Magazine Gives Michigan Low Marks

Some of us may beg to differ, but Michigan is not among the best states in the nation, according to a report released Tuesday morning. But, if you have driven on Michigan roads or had difficulties with your electric utility, you likely will understand the Great Lakes State's ranking at No. 37 by U.S. News & World Report.

The magazine looked at a number of criteria for its rankings, and among them was infrastructure. Michigan ranks at No. 40 among the 50 states for the category that covers energy, transportation and Internet access. The magazine ranked the state's Internet access at 38th and energy at 46th among the 50 states.

For transportation, magazine ranked the state at 26th – not bad, considering recents news that some of Michigan's bridges and roads are not in the best shape.

In the magazine's rankings, Michigan ranked highest in the opportunity category, at No. 20. Within that category, the state received a high mark (4th) for affordability among the 50 states.

In determining the rankings for 2018, U.S. News evaluated how each state ranked in 77 metrics across eight categories. The eight categories were weighted based on the average of two years of data from a national survey that asked over 30,000 respondents to prioritize each category in their state.

Owing to the intense debate surrounding health care, the topic was weighted as the most important category by citizens across the country. Hawaii ranked No. 1 in the health care category, followed by Iowa and Washington. Michigan ranked No. 32 in health care.

Here’s how Michigan ranked in the other categories evaluated by the magazine:

Crime and Corrections: 32
Economy: 22
Education: 36
Fiscal stability: 32
Quality of life: 29

Overall, Iowa ranked as the best state in the U.S. because of its strong performance in the opportunity and health care categories. Minnesota ranked No. 2 and Utah ranked No. 3 on the list.

U.S. News’ findings showed that states that ranked highly in the education category also ranked highly overall. Eight of the top ten states overall also ranked among the top 10 for education. Massachusetts, which ranked No.1 for education and Utah, which ranked No.3 for education placed in the top 10 states overall.

Colorado and Utah ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the economy category while Iowa ranked No. 1 for infrastructure. New Hampshire ranked No. 1 for opportunity and Maine ranked No. 1 for crime and corrections.

The top 10 states in the U.S. are:

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

The data for the rankings came from McKinsey & Company’s Leading States Index. U.S. News ranked the categories and subcategories from 1 to 50 before creating overall rankings. (Read more about U.S. News’ methodology here.)

Patch's Feroze Dhanoa contributed to this report.

File photo by Joshua Lott/Getty Images