Maryland #8 in U.S. News & World Report “Best States” Rankings

ANNAPOLIS, MD – Maryland has been recognized as one of the best states in the nation to live in by U.S. News & World Report in their inaugural “Best States” ranking, which analyzed data in seven key areas – education, health care, infrastructure, economy, government, opportunity, and crime and corrections – to determine the state’s composite score.

In addition to ranking eighth overall, Maryland ranked among the top five states for education and opportunity, a metric that includes factors like income disparity and upward mobility, as well as having the second-lowest poverty rate in the nation, and the highest household income.

“Maryland has made tremendous strides in turning our economy around, improving education, and working to ensure that every single Marylander has the opportunity to succeed,” said Governor Larry Hogan. “We have made incredible progress over the past two years, but there is still more work to do to continue making Maryland the very best place to live, work, raise a family, and retire.”

Maryland’s high education score follows the Hogan administration funding K-12 education at record levels for three budgets in a row and making record investments in higher education, as well as innovative programs like the Pathways to Technology Early College High School (P-TECH) schools that opened in Baltimore City in 2016 and continue to expand across the state.

The Hogan administration has also taken important steps to provide increased economic opportunity, including expanding the nationally-renowned EARN workforce training program and proposing targeted funding increases in the 2017 legislative session. Since Governor Hogan took office, Maryland has created 73,000 jobs and the unemployment rate has dropped to 4.2 percent, an eight-year low.

This year the governor has introduced the Maryland Jobs Initiative, a legislative and budgetary package that includes the More Jobs for Marylanders Act of 2017, which incentivizes companies to create jobs in high unemployment areas.

U.S. News evaluated states across 68 metrics to create the “Best States” rankings. The resulting rankings are based on tens of thousands of data points provided by McKinsey & Company’s Leading States Index. In calculating the rankings, categories were weighted based on a national “citizen experience” survey, conducted by McKinsey, that asked people to prioritize each subject in their state and provide their levels of satisfaction with government services.

Find more information about the “Best States” rankings, and Maryland’s scores, here.