Arizona does not fare well in ‘best state in the US’ rankings
Mar 2, 2018, 4:20 AM
PHOENIX — If you are looking to live in the best state in the United States, we have some bad news for you: Arizona is not the place.
That’s right, Arizona did not fare well in a recent list of best states in the U.S. In fact, it fared quite poorly, coming in at No. 39.
According to U.S. News and World Report, Arizona ranked poorly due to its low scores in education (No. 43 in the nation), opportunity (No. 45) and quality of life (No. 39).
Arizona’s education score was further broken down into two categories: Higher education and Pre-K through 12 education.
More than 61 percent of students at public colleges in Arizona graduate in six years or less, ranking Arizona higher education at No. 19 in the nation. Less than 50 percent of those students graduate with debt.
But many Arizona students are being sent to college with little or no preparedness, the study found. Just over 30 percent of students meet the benchmarks for the ACT or SAT college readiness exams.
In addition, just over 77 percent of Arizona high schoolers are graduating from public school in four years, ranking the state forty-fifth in the nation.
It is also hard for a good number of Arizonans to access quality health care. More than 13 percent of Arizonans are uninsured and more than 13 percent are also going without care due to the cost.
But Arizona did fare well in several categories, including economy. The state ranked third in the nation for job growth, with an average annual job growth rate of 3.1 percent.
Arizona also ranked above the national average for new businesses, with about 3.5 percent of all businesses in the state being new.
The state is also very reliable for electricity. Arizona ranked second in the nation for power grid reliability, with residents experiencing less than an hour of power outages each year.
The five best states in the nation were Iowa, Minnesota, Utah, North Dakota and New Hampshire, while Alabama, West Virginia, New Mexico, Mississippi and Louisiana all scored on the opposite end of the spectrum.
