Study Ranks New Jersey Among the Best States to Live in, New York and Connecticut Crack the Top 20

Finding the perfect state to call home is quite an undertaking that leads potential residents to consider everything from cost of living to job opportunities to safety and education. Of course, personal preference comes into play.

With this in mind, WalletHub looked into which states outshine others when it comes to the best places to live in.

To determine the ranking, WalletHub compared the 50 states based on 51 key indicators. These key indicators comprise five individual ranks: affordability, economy, education and health, quality of life, as well as safety.

It turns out that the tri-state area is found among the top 20 best states to live in, but one particular local state outshined the rest.

The Garden State came in at an admirable fourth spot overall as one of the best states to live in. This high placement comes in part due to New Jersey’s placement in the five individual rankings.

When it comes to the affordability ranking, New Jersey placed in 48th place. It also came in 35th place in the economy rank, 15th in the education and health rank, seventh in the quality of life rank and first place in the safety rank, according to WalletHub.

New York finds itself 10 spots below New Jersey – coming in at No. 14 overall. When it comes to individual rankings, New York placed in at No. 50 when it comes to affordability, No. 26 when it comes to economy and No. 25 in education and health, according to the study. The state also came in first and second place in the quality of life and safety ranks, respectively.

Additionally, New York made appearances in individual key indicator categories. It had the third highest housing costs, the lowest homeownership rate and the most restaurants per capita.

Connecticut rounded out the top 20 coming in at No. 46 when it comes to affordability, No. 42 in economy, fifth in education and health, No. 18 in quality of life and ninth in safety.

The state also appeared in individual key indicator categories, obtaining the third spot among the states with the lowest percentage of population living below the poverty level.

Unfortunately, Mississippi came in as the worst state to live in, according to WalletHub.

So which state was crowned the best of the best? WalletHub named Massachusetts the top state to live in.

To learn about the methodology used in the ranking, and see the full list, click here.