South Carolina Ranked Among The Worst States in America to Raise a Family

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Charlotte Stories
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Happy New Year! With around 11% of Americans having moved during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on 2022’s Best & Worst States to Raise a Family.

To determine the best states in which to put down family roots, WalletHub compared the 50 states across 51 key indicators of family-friendliness. The data set ranges from the median annual family income to housing affordability to the unemployment rate.

North Carolina fell in the bottom half at #37 and South Carolina came in the bottom 5 at #47 overall.

Best States for Families

Overall Rank  State Total Score  Family Fun  Health & Safety  Education & Child Care  Affordability  Socio-economics 
1 Massachusetts 65.21 9 3 2 2 24
2 New York 61.81 2 8 5 6 46
3 Vermont 59.15 44 1 4 30 1
4 Minnesota 58.79 13 9 22 9 7
5 Nebraska 58.49 17 10 12 14 4
6 New Hampshire 58.38 34 2 9 24 5
7 Connecticut 57.67 29 7 7 1 38
8 Washington 57.58 8 18 26 3 16
9 North Dakota 57.57 31 17 3 15 2
10 New Jersey 57.01 21 14 1 4 41
11 Rhode Island 55.72 28 5 17 5 32
12 Iowa 55.58 32 13 11 7 10
13 Utah 54.98 16 19 15 38 3
14 Wisconsin 54.47 20 23 16 19 11
15 South Dakota 54.39 30 12 13 27 8
16 Illinois 54.06 3 31 21 22 43
17 Maine 53.73 46 4 6 33 14
18 Virginia 53.16 27 11 14 13 17
19 Colorado 53.16 7 29 28 18 18
20 Maryland 52.72 23 15 10 10 30
21 Pennsylvania 51.59 12 27 25 8 27
22 Montana 51.53 39 20 8 43 6
23 Hawaii 51.32 15 6 27 40 21
24 California 51.18 1 32 46 20 42
25 Oregon 50.79 10 24 35 11 20
26 Wyoming 49.76 33 16 19 39 13
27 Kansas 49.30 37 35 23 16 12
28 Missouri 49.12 24 34 20 26 15
29 Delaware 46.63 40 26 18 25 37
30 Texas 46.42 5 47 30 44 44
31 Ohio 45.07 19 30 38 23 40
32 Alaska 45.06 14 33 40 28 23
33 Indiana 44.75 36 37 33 21 19
34 Idaho 44.46 38 21 45 47 9
35 Michigan 44.41 43 25 34 12 39
36 Tennessee 43.85 22 40 32 34 25
37 North Carolina 43.70 26 39 29 37 26
38 Kentucky 43.19 45 28 24 35 33
39 Florida 43.12 6 38 31 50 45
40 Arizona 40.39 11 36 47 48 29
41 Georgia 39.83 25 46 39 42 35
42 Nevada 38.96 4 45 49 49 49
43 Alabama 38.34 47 44 41 17 31
44 Arkansas 37.91 48 43 36 29 28
45 West Virginia 37.69 50 22 43 41 22
46 Oklahoma 37.19 41 48 44 36 34
47 South Carolina 37.09 42 41 42 46 36
48 Louisiana 34.66 18 49 48 31 50
49 New Mexico 30.79 35 42 50 45 48
50 Mississippi 30.47 49 50 37 32 47

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.

You can see the full methodology here.

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