With the U.S. starting to open up more but a full reopening only possible once we achieve widespread vaccination, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released updated rankings for the States with the Fewest Coronavirus Restrictions.
To identify which states have the fewest coronavirus restrictions, the site compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 14 key metrics. Their data set ranges from whether restaurants are open to whether the state has required face masks in public and workplace temperature screenings.
North Carolina ranked among the top 10 most restrictive states and South Carolina ranked among the top 10 least restrictive states:
States with the Fewest COVID-19 Restrictions
Overall Rank | State | Total Score | Delta in Overall Rank vs. October 6, 2020 |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Oklahoma | 84.69 | 3 |
2 | South Dakota | 81.63 | -1 |
3 | Iowa | 76.05 | 2 |
4 | Arkansas | 75.85 | 6 |
5 | Florida | 75.51 | 6 |
6 | Utah | 75.20 | -3 |
7 | Missouri | 73.47 | 1 |
8 | Wisconsin | 72.65 | -2 |
9 | Alaska | 72.31 | 3 |
10 | South Carolina | 71.60 | 9 |
11 | Kansas | 67.21 | 6 |
12 | Alabama | 66.33 | 2 |
13 | Montana | 65.99 | 15 |
14 | Idaho | 65.68 | -12 |
14 | North Dakota | 65.68 | -5 |
16 | Wyoming | 65.37 | -9 |
17 | Nebraska | 64.80 | 4 |
18 | Georgia | 62.04 | -5 |
19 | Tennessee | 59.05 | -1 |
20 | Indiana | 57.42 | -5 |
21 | Mississippi | 57.35 | 1 |
22 | Louisiana | 56.80 | 3 |
23 | New Hampshire | 51.36 | 3 |
24 | Maryland | 50.88 | 0 |
25 | West Virginia | 47.72 | 2 |
26 | Kentucky | 45.78 | 11 |
27 | Nevada | 44.97 | -7 |
28 | Texas | 43.06 | 7 |
29 | Michigan | 42.55 | 1 |
30 | Arizona | 42.04 | 15 |
31 | Ohio | 40.51 | -15 |
32 | Minnesota | 39.86 | 0 |
33 | Delaware | 39.35 | -2 |
34 | New Jersey | 39.01 | 13 |
35 | Pennsylvania | 37.62 | 7 |
36 | Rhode Island | 36.05 | -7 |
37 | Oregon | 35.58 | 7 |
38 | Colorado | 33.88 | 8 |
39 | New York | 33.67 | -1 |
40 | Maine | 33.54 | 8 |
41 | Connecticut | 32.52 | -2 |
42 | Illinois | 31.74 | -19 |
43 | Hawaii | 28.64 | 8 |
44 | North Carolina | 26.26 | -11 |
45 | Vermont | 26.05 | -4 |
46 | Washington | 24.83 | -10 |
47 | New Mexico | 23.50 | -13 |
48 | District of Columbia | 21.63 | -5 |
49 | Massachusetts | 21.09 | 0 |
50 | Virginia | 18.57 | -10 |
51 | California | 16.67 | -1 |
Note: Rankings are based on data available as of 12:30 p.m. ET on Monday, January 25, 2021.