Looking at where to live in US? Consider Iowa, which ranked in top 10 best states in 2024

Paris Barraza, Des Moines Register

Iowa is one of the top 10 best states in America, according to a ranking designed to give people insight into a state's strengths and what can be improved.

U.S. News & World Report released the sixth edition of its 2024 Best States rankings on Tuesday, which shows “how states best serve their citizens” in various categories including health care, education and the economy.

Iowa ranks sixth overall, joining neighboring states Minnesota and Nebraska in the top 10.

“As we anticipate this year’s presidential election – as well as critical races in the House and Senate and for governor’s mansions – Americans are taking a hard look at the policies and practices that impact them where they live,” said Gary Emerling, U.S. News managing editor for government rankings in a news release. “The 2024 Best States rankings and editorial content offer insightful information on where states are excelling and where the pain points are so citizens can be better informed going to the ballot box this November.”

Here’s how well Iowa performed and which state ranked best overall.

Why is Iowa one of the best states in the U.S.?

Iowa ranked higher than other states across eight categories.

It performed especially well in these two categories: No. 3 in opportunity, which includes measures like the cost of living and the percentage of food insecure households, and No. 10 in infrastructure, or measures including internet access or how long a power outage is.

Here’s where it ranks in these other categories:

  • Health care: 21

  • Education: 11

  • Economy: 36

  • Fiscal stability: 12

  • Crime and corrections: 14

  • Natural environment: 15

Iowa's sixth-place ranking for 2024 is an improvement of one spot over its seventh-place ranking in 2023. The state was ranked No. 1 in 2018.

What are the top 10 best states in the U.S. in 2024?

Utah was crowned best state overall, making the top 20 results in all but one category: Natural environment.

The top 10 overall best states in America are:

  1. Utah

  2. New Hampshire

  3. Nebraska

  4. Minnesota

  5. Idaho

  6. Iowa

  7. Vermont

  8. Washington

  9. Florida

  10. Massachusetts

National trends show that improvements have been made in metrics such as health insurance enrollment and juvenile incarceration rates in recent years, according to U.S. News & World Report’s findings.

Not all measures of people's lives are improving though. For example, there has been an increase in adults reporting having poor mental health and an increase in tuition and fees at public colleges, U.S. News & World Report found.

How does U.S. News & World Report determine the best states in U.S.?

The media company uses 71 metrics across eight categories in its methodology. Each category was assigned a weight reflective of what matters more to people based on data from national surveys, according to U.S. News & World Report.

These are the eight categories in order from greatest to least weight:

  • Health care

  • Education

  • Economy

  • Infrastructure

  • Opportunity

  • Fiscal stability

  • Crime and corrections

  • Natural environment

Each category contains various metrics. For example, the category of health care included data on the population without health insurance to ratings on the quality of nursing homes. For education, metrics included the high school graduation rate to math and reading scores.

U.S. News & World Report used the most recent data available “for consistent nationwide comparison” for each metric, according to a news release.

Paris Barraza is a trending and general assignment reporter at the Des Moines Register. Reach her at pbarraza@registermedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @ParisBarraza.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Iowa is one of the best states to live in, says U.S. News. Here's why.

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