24-05-2025
U.S. News & World Report's Best States: Where does Virginia rank?
Virginia was ranked 16th on U.S. News & World Report's list for the 2025 best states in the country.
Virginia's ranking this year dropped from 2024, when it was ranked the 13th best state.
The ranking takes several metrics across eight categories into account: crime and corrections, economy, education, fiscal stability, health care, infrastructure, natural environment and opportunity.
Here's how Virginia fared across the board.
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Across U.S. News' main categories, here's how Virginia ranked:
Economy: No. 10
Crime and corrections: No. 12
Education: No. 15
Health care: No. 18
Natural environment: No. 19
Fiscal stability: No. 23
Opportunity: No. 25
Infrastructure: No. 38
Virginia also ranked fairly high in these subcategories: Air & water quality (No. 3), employment (No. 4), long-term fiscal stability (No. 8) and pre-k education (No. 10).
According to the ranking, Virginia's job growth was 2.3% this year, above the national average of 1.5%. The state's high school graduation rate of 88.8% was also above the national average of 85.8%, and its poverty rate of 10.2% fell below the national average of 12.2%.
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However, Virginia's liquidity is only 53.4 according to the ranking, far below the national average of 99.4 and contributing to the state's low score in short-term fiscal stability.
Virginia's lowest scores were in the following four subcategories: Short-term fiscal stability (No. 36), pollution (No. 36), affordability (No. 37) and internet access (No. 37).
Utah was crowned best state overall for a third straight year and ranked in the top 20 for seven of the eight categories, according to the report. Here are U.S. News' top five overall best states in America:
Utah
New Hampshire
Idaho
Minnesota
Nebraska
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Louisiana was ranked the worst state in the U.S., according to the report, and Alaska, Mississippi, New Mexico and West Virginia finished out the report's bottom five states.
This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: U.S. News & World Report's Best States Rankings: Where does VA rank?
