South Carolina Ranked Among The Worst States in America To Have A Baby

By
Charlotte Stories
-
28

With the average conventional birth costing over $2,600 for mothers with insurance and nearly $15,000 for mothers without insurance, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on 2025’s Best & Worst States to Have a Baby, as well as expert commentary.

To determine the most ideal places in the U.S. for parents and their newborns, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 31 key measures of cost, health care accessibility and baby-friendliness. The data set ranges from hospital conventional-delivery charges to annual average infant-care costs to pediatricians per capita.

South Carolina was ranked #48 and North Carolina was ranked #33.

Best States to Have a Baby

Overall Rank  State Total Score  Cost Rank  Health Care Rank  Baby-Friendliness Rank  Family-Friendliness Rank 
1 Massachusetts 73.64 43 1 2 1
2 North Dakota 67.65 4 4 28 3
3 Minnesota 67.44 23 7 7 2
4 New Hampshire 65.82 3 6 45 5
5 Maine 64.26 25 11 3 9
6 Rhode Island 63.40 38 3 5 16
7 Vermont 60.30 40 2 26 14
8 Washington 60.26 44 8 4 13
9 Iowa 59.65 8 10 33 12
10 District of Columbia 59.56 30 28 1 N/A
11 Connecticut 59.31 47 9 9 10
12 Oregon 57.93 33 5 10 22
13 Nebraska 56.98 15 42 29 4
14 Utah 56.97 14 14 17 20
15 New York 56.73 50 22 8 6
16 Wisconsin 56.33 41 24 16 8
17 Colorado 55.80 46 16 11 11
18 Maryland 54.78 6 23 34 19
19 Illinois 54.53 35 26 36 7
20 Pennsylvania 53.66 10 20 43 17
21 Hawaii 52.93 36 18 6 25
22 Virginia 52.80 19 34 12 21
23 South Dakota 52.52 13 33 41 15
24 Idaho 51.86 2 19 13 34
25 Ohio 51.33 5 27 35 24
26 Montana 50.45 22 13 49 23
27 Delaware 50.43 11 12 24 36
28 New Jersey 49.38 49 29 15 18
29 Michigan 46.81 12 21 30 38
30 Kentucky 46.26 9 44 18 32
31 California 44.56 51 15 22 28
32 Alaska 43.28 39 17 20 39
33 North Carolina 43.15 20 31 42 37
34 Arizona 43.10 26 30 19 41
35 Tennessee 43.05 37 38 25 31
36 Missouri 42.57 17 46 47 27
37 Texas 42.29 42 35 31 30
38 Kansas 41.93 32 41 38 29
39 Indiana 41.44 16 45 32 35
40 Wyoming 41.09 45 37 40 26
41 Louisiana 39.92 1 48 21 43
42 West Virginia 39.84 21 32 27 48
43 Oklahoma 38.08 18 40 39 46
44 Florida 37.40 48 47 23 33
45 Arkansas 37.27 7 51 14 44
46 New Mexico 37.01 28 25 37 50
47 Georgia 36.89 27 39 46 40
48 South Carolina 33.77 31 43 50 42
49 Nevada 33.31 34 36 48 47
50 Alabama 29.39 29 49 51 45
51 Mississippi 27.99 24 50 44 49

Note: With the exception of “Total Score,” all of the columns in the table above depict the relative rank of that state, where a rank of 1 represents the best conditions for that metric category.