Massachusetts
Is Massachusetts the best state to live in? New national ranking says so. Here’s why
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Which state is the best to live in? Massachusetts takes the cake, a new national ranking found.
Personal finance company WalletHub just released its annual list of the best states to live in, and the Bay State was named No. 1.
WalletHub said the list was compiled based on livability factors, with finances generally being a major component.
“You should also consider a wide variety of other factors, such as how where you live will impact your health and safety, and whether you will have adequate access to activities that you enjoy,” a WalletHub analyst said.
Here’s why Massachusetts came out on the top of the list.
Why is Massachusetts the best state to live in?
WalletHub found Massachusetts is the best state to live in mostly because of the state’s strong health care and education systems.
The state has the lowest premature death rate and the lowest share of adults in fair or poor health. It also has the highest number of residents with health insurance, at 97.3%.
Additionally, Massachusetts has the best school systems in the country, WalletHub found. It also has the fourth-best high school graduation rate in the country, at over 90%.
Other factors that put Massachusetts at the top of the list were that it has the third-lowest property crime rate and the third-best access to public transportation.
Which other New England states are good places to live?
On WalletHub’s 2024 list of the best states to live, New Hampshire was the only New England state other than Massachusetts that made the top ten. It was named the fifth best state to live.
Maine and Vermont came in under the top 20, at No. 14 and No. 19, respectively.
Connecticut was No. 22 on the list and Rhode Island was No. 28.
What makes a state a good place to live?
To determine the best and worst places to live, WalletHub said it compared states based on five different factors: affordability, economy, education and health, quality of life and safety.
These factors were broken down into further categories to calculate scores for each state. For example, in terms of affordability, categories included housing affordability, median annual property taxes, cost of living, median annual household income and home ownership rates.
Scores totaled up to 100 and were weighted to find the average. Higher scores indicated better rankings. Massachusetts’ score was 60.52.
We had a little taste of true winter in southwestern New England on Monday morning as a quick moving system passed south of us. Temperatures were cold enough to support 1-2 inches of snow in parts of western Massachusetts and Connecticut and a coating of snow in northern Rhode Island.
Even though it was cold enough for some snow, it wasn’t as cold as on this date in 1835. New England has one of the coldest days on record, with Boston at -4 at noontime, then falling to -12 by sunset. Norfolk, Connecticut, was only -15, while Hanover, New Hampshire, was at -17.
As our temperatures warm up a bit on Monday, we keep a shower chance in, but are no longer expecting icy spots later in the day, as highs reach the upper 30s and 40s. The cold air is more stubborn in the valleys, so only there is where we might find some lingering icy roads.
Overnight, a surge of warmth kicks up our temps to the 40s and 50s south on a gusty south wind. Scattered rain moves through overnight and into the Tuesday morning commute. The showers move out by midday as a west wind keeps us in the 40s and 50s for highs on a westerly breeze.
The milder temperatures and dry afternoons will make for decent conditions to keep hanging those holiday lights.
As temperatures slowly drop into the 40s again for midweek, we expect rain in Boston and for areas south of the Massachusetts Turnpike for Wednesday night into Thursday. Northern New England will see light snowfall, with another elevation-driven storm.
Arctic air spills in across the northeast after Friday as we drop to highs around freezing, then 20s on Saturday and teens for some on Sunday. We dry off during this timeframe leading up to Christmas. Temperatures stay cool in the 30s, with no significant signal for Christmas snow in the forecast… for now.
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