California has the worst quality of life in the United States, according to a new ranking released Tuesday by U.S. News & World Report.
According to the study, California ranked No. 32 overall but came in 50th place for quality of life, just after New Jersey in 49th and Indiana in 48th. The state with the best quality of life was North Dakota, followed by Minnesota and Wisconsin.
The “quality of life” category takes into account the health of a state’s natural and social environments, according to U.S. News.
“Among the measures used to evaluate states’ natural environments are drinking water quality, air quality and total toxic chemical pollution per square. The ranking also considers how much each state puts its citizens at risk for long-term, chronic health effects from pollution,” the study said.
“Social environment, on the other hand, investigates how involved people are in their communities,” the study said. “Two of the measures, community engagement and social support, are based on surveys where people shared how often they participate in community events and how often they spend time with family members, friends and work colleagues. Political involvement was also determined by evaluating average voter turnout at the 2016 presidential and congressional elections.”
The study also judged states on their health care, education, economy, opportunity, infrastructure, crime and corrections and fiscal stability in order to determine the “Best State” overall. California ranked No. 11 in health care, No. 26 in education, No. 4 in economy, No. 46 in opportunity, No. 38 in infrastructure, No. 28 in crime and corrections and No. 43 in fiscal stability.
According to U.S. News, the data driving these rankings “were drawn from extensive and reliable governmental and private sources as well as proprietary data including a national survey of what matters most to citizens around the country.”
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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