How Virginia Ranks In ‘Best State In The Country’ List

Virginia is among the top half of the best states in the country, according to a new set of rankings released Tuesday by U.S. News & World Report. The rankings place Virginia at 20th on the list of best states in the U.S.

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. Virginia ranked 29th in the category. (For more information on this and other neighborhood stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

Here’s how Virginia ranked in all eight categories evaluated by U.S. News:

Crime and Corrections: 4
Economy: 30
Education: 12
Fiscal stability: 14
Health care: 29
Infrastructure: 39
Opportunity: 9
Quality of life: 41

You can find more insight on Virginia and how it ranks in the various categories and subcategories here.

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.)

See the full U.S. News rankings here.

By Feroze Dhanoa, Patch National Staff

Image of Alexandria, Virginia via Jon Bilous/Shutterstock