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Massachusetts is the best state to live in, according to a new report. Do you agree?

The state's strongest category was education and health care and its weakest was affordability.

A blue outline of the state of massachusetts with a red foam finger saying No. 1.
WalletHub has named Massachusetts the Best State to Live In for the second year in a row. Adobe Stock/Canva

By Laura Emde

1 minute to read

For the second year in a row, WalletHub has named Massachusetts the best state to live in.

In the report, released Monday, the Bay State scored 61.67 points out of 100. WalletHub used five criteria (each worth 20 points) to reach its findings: affordability, economy, education and health, quality of life, and safety. It also looked at 51 smaller metrics to determine the score for each category.

The top five states on the list were:

  1. Massachusetts
  2. New Jersey
  3. New Hampshire
  4. New York
  5. Wyoming

The bottom five on the list were:

46. Oklahoma

47. Mississippi

48. Louisiana

49. Alaska

50. New Mexico.

Here’s how all of the New England state ranked:

  1. Massachusetts

3. New Hampshire

12. Maine

17. Vermont

26. Connecticut

29. Rhode Island

Source: WalletHub

WalletHub also named Massachusetts the best state to live in last year. The Commonwealth dethroned New Jersey with a total score of 62.65 points.

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Massachusetts’ strongest category in this year’s analysis was education and health care (No. 1), and its weakest was affordability (No 44).

In a video highlighting the state’s strengths and weaknesses, WalletHub praised the state’s public school system and its property crime rate, but said it fell short on road quality and cost of living.

Experts who spoke to WalletHub noted that the criteria used in reports like WalletHub’s should not be used as absolutes to determine the best state to live in.

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“Rather than using indices that might not use your top five indicators, list your top five indicators, then do some homework to see if the same cities or places continually show up in those indicators to make a better decision,” said Jesse Saginor, professor and chair of the Department of Urban and Regional planning at Florida Atlantic University.

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