South Carolina Ranks Among 2023’s Worst State in America to Have a Baby

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Charlotte Stories
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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 2023’s Best & Worst States to Have a Baby.

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 came in at #49 in the nation, with North Carolina also ranking in the bottom half at #39.

Best States to Have a Baby

Overall Rank  State Total Score  Cost  Health Care  Baby-Friendliness  Family-Friendliness 
1 Massachusetts 69.31 42 2 4 1
2 Minnesota 67.86 24 4 10 2
3 Vermont 65.74 36 1 26 5
4 Rhode Island 65.64 33 3 2 11
5 North Dakota 64.21 5 20 24 4
6 New Hampshire 64.15 2 6 41 6
7 Iowa 62.19 12 5 35 9
8 Utah 61.42 15 14 11 15
9 Connecticut 60.67 48 9 13 10
10 Washington 60.23 44 12 3 12
11 Oregon 58.37 30 8 6 24
12 Montana 58.26 16 7 15 25
13 Hawaii 58.24 27 13 5 23
14 District of Columbia 58.10 26 40 1 N/A
15 Maine 57.73 25 11 23 16
16 New Jersey 56.67 49 32 7 7
17 New York 56.24 50 19 25 3
18 Maryland 55.39 4 23 37 19
19 South Dakota 55.24 13 29 36 14
20 Nebraska 54.24 19 35 43 8
21 Illinois 54.12 35 18 31 13
22 Colorado 53.93 43 22 8 20
23 Wisconsin 53.89 40 15 22 17
24 Pennsylvania 53.48 10 26 42 18
25 Delaware 52.33 14 10 40 30
26 Virginia 51.93 22 21 34 21
27 Idaho 51.80 9 17 12 35
28 California 49.25 51 28 9 22
29 Ohio 49.01 3 25 38 31
30 Michigan 48.81 8 27 27 36
31 Kansas 48.79 31 30 17 29
32 Alaska 47.18 34 16 14 38
33 Missouri 46.45 11 39 44 28
34 Kentucky 46.29 7 41 18 37
35 Wyoming 45.11 47 34 21 27
36 Tennessee 43.84 38 38 20 33
37 Texas 43.81 45 33 39 26
38 New Mexico 42.27 28 24 16 49
39 North Carolina 42.23 21 31 46 39
40 Indiana 41.90 18 44 33 34
41 Arizona 41.26 37 37 19 41
42 Florida 40.37 46 42 28 32
43 Nevada 39.73 32 36 30 40
44 Oklahoma 39.10 17 43 32 43
45 Arkansas 36.09 6 50 29 44
46 Georgia 34.31 29 46 48 42
47 West Virginia 33.28 23 45 51 48
48 Louisiana 31.93 1 48 47 47
49 South Carolina 30.24 41 47 49 46
50 Alabama 27.71 39 51 45 45
51 Mississippi 26.87 20 49 50 50

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.

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