U.S. News & World Report just released its rankings of the Best States for 2023 and NJ came in at number 19. And while the Garden State scored high marks in areas such as education, our ranking was brought down due to low marks for fiscal stability and opportunity. The project used thousands of data points to determine how well each of the 50 states ranks. Statistics related to more than 70 metrics across eight categories including health care, education and natural environment are taken into consideration.
This year, Utah took the top spot from Washington, which fell to number two this year. New York came in just below NJ, claiming the number 20 spot.
Here are the top 20 states according to U.S. News:
- Utah
- Washington
- Idaho
- Nebraska
- Minnesota
- New Hampshire
- Iowa
- Wisconsin
- Vermont
- Florida
- Massachusetts
- South Dakota
- Virginia
- North Dakota
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- North Carolina
- Delaware
- New Jersey
- New York
“The home of native musical legends such as Bruce Springsteen, Jon Bon Jovi, Frank Sinatra and Whitney Houston, New Jersey is known for more than producing popular hit-makers,” says U.S. News in their description of our state. “It has world-class universities, leading technology and biological science firms and one fast turnpike.”
NJ ranked high in education (#2) especially for Pre-K-12, crime and corrections (#5) in which the state earned high marks for public safety and health care (#8). Areas where the state did not do as well include fiscal stability (#49), opportunity (#43) due to the state being unaffordable for many and infrastructure (#35) earning low marks for our energy usage and transportation offerings.
Click here to see how all 50 states ranked and to learn more about each of them.
Read more:
New Jersey is the 7th Best State to Raise a Family
6 NJ Towns Ranked Among the Best Places to Live in NY Metro Area
Here are NJ’s Best School Districts
