Best States To Have A Baby: How North Carolina Ranks

NORTH CAROLINA— Earlier this year, WalletHub took a look at the best cities in North Carolina to raise a family. Now, the consumer finance site said it's revealed the best states in the nation to have a baby. So where does North Carolina fall on the list?

According to WalletHub, the Tarheel State is well below-average place to have a child. North Carolina came in at No. 40 on the list, which ranks all 50 states and the District of Columbia. (For more news like this, find your local Patch here. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app; download the free Patch Android app here.)

How did they come up with the results? "To determine the most ideal places in the U.S. to have a baby, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 26 key measures of cost, health care accessibility, as well as baby- and family-friendliness," WalletHub said. "Our data set ranges from hospital conventional-delivery charges to annual average infant-care costs to pediatricians per capita."

North Carolina came in at No. 31 when it came to health care availability, No. 42 in baby-friendliness and No. 38 in family-friendliness.

The best place in the U.S. to have a baby is Vermont, according to the study, and the worst is Mississippi. Maryland and North Dakota were among the states with the lowest costs of both conventional and Cesarean delivery. The highest delivery costs were seen in states including Florida, Nevada, California, New Jersey, Colorado and Rhode Island, according to the study.

The lowest infant mortality rates were seen in Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New Jersey and California. Vermont also had the most pediatricians and family doctors per capita as well as the most child-care centers per capita.

These were the top 5 states:

• Vermont
• Massachusetts
• Minnesota
• New Hampshire
• North Dakota

These states were the 5 worst places to have a baby, according to the study:

• Mississippi
• Alabama
• South Carolina
• Louisiana
• Oklahoma

Read the full results here.

Patch Editor Shannon Antinori contributed

Photo via Shutterstock