U.S. News & World Report crunched the numbers — more than 75 different data sets — and ranked Alabama as one of the worst places to live in America.
Technically, it is the 46th best place to live on the magazine’s 2018 “Best States” rankings.
Alabama beat out West Virginia, New Mexico, Mississippi and Louisiana, which ranked 46th through 50th.
Among eight major categories, the Yellowhammer State scored best in fiscal stability, coming in 25th place. Its worst category was opportunity — a measure of how easy it is to get ahead — where the state ranked 48th. But the state also ranked in the bottom 10 in health care, education, and crime and corrections.
Iowa topped the list, ranking in the top 15 in six of the eight categories. Minnesota, Utah, North Dakota and New Hampshire rounded out the top five states.
“At a time when the federal government is attempting to hand more responsibility for spending and policymaking to the states, these rankings offer the first comprehensive view, state by state, of how some states already are performing best,” U.S. News wrote. “This highly interactive platform enables users to explore thousands of important benchmarks and easily draw state-to-state comparisons.”
The magazine, which had developed a niche in the media space for its annual rankings on a number of topics, analyzed data from “extensive and reliable governmental and private sources.” It weighted the data based on survey results showing what matters most to people.
The report is chock-full of numbers.
For instance, on fiscal stability — Alabama’s best showing — the state ranked high in liquidity, as measured by assets vs. liabilities (8th best) and in government credit rating (15th). But the state scored in the bottom half when it comes to pension fund liability (34th) and budget balancing (44th).
Some of the measures are objective and fairly straightforward. For example, Alabama has the 44th worst violent crime rate per 100,000 residents and the 38th-worst property crime rate. No wiggle room for interpretation there. The magazine rates Alabama low for incarceration, with the third-highest percentage of citizens locked up. On the other hand, Alabama’s three-year recidivism rate is much lower than the national average.
It all adds up to rank Alabama 43rd overall in the crime and corrections category.
Other measures are more subjective, however. How to evaluate quality of life, where Alabama comes in 35th? U.S. News chose to examine social environment and the natural environment. That entails measures of pollution, including drinking water quality — which U.S. News judges Alabama as having the second best. But Alabama beat out only three other states for industrial toxins, measured by pounds of poisons per square mile.
For social environment, U.S. News measures “community engagement” on a scale of one through six, with six marking the highest satisfaction. Alabama ranks 11th in that sub-category. But the Heart of Dixie loses points for voter participation. With an average turnout of 48.6 percent for presidential and congressional elections, the state ranks 32nd.
In the opportunity category, Alabama scores low on a variety of equality measures — high income inequality, low median household income, and high rates of poverty and residents with “food insecurity.”
Those negatives outweigh Alabama comparatively high performance on measures of affordability. The state has the nation’s ninth-lowest cost of living, for instance, and ranks in the top half on housing affordability, determined by calculating the cost of houses compared with average income.
The full rankings can be found here.
Brendan Kirby is senior political reporter at LifeZette.com and a Yellowhammer contributor. He also is the author of “Wicked Mobile.” Follow him on Twitter.
