Where NM landed in the latest ‘Best States to Live’ rankings

The Piñon Post ^ | March 2, 2026 | Piñon Post staff

[CedarDave]

According to WalletHub’s 2026 “Best States to Live In” study, New Mexico ranks dead last in the nation — a sobering distinction that underscores years of troubling trends in education, health, and public safety.

The annual analysis compares all 50 states across 51 separate indicators, including affordability, economic performance, education and health outcomes, quality of life, and safety. While some states perform strongly in certain categories and poorly in others, New Mexico’s overall placement at No. 50 signals broad, structural weaknesses that continue to drag down the state’s standing nationwide.

WalletHub assigns New Mexico an overall score of 39.68, the lowest in the country. The state’s weakest areas are education and health, where it ranks 48th, and safety, where it ranks 49th — nearly at the very bottom. Those figures reflect longstanding concerns about crime rates, health access, educational attainment, and student performance metrics.

While New Mexico’s economy ranks 33rd — closer to the middle of the pack — and its quality of life sits at 30th, those middling scores are not enough to offset deep problems in the areas that most directly impact daily life. Safety in particular weighs heavily in WalletHub’s methodology, and New Mexico’s near-bottom ranking in that category reflects persistent issues with violent crime and property crime that have plagued communities across the state.

Education and health metrics further compound the problem. Rankings in this category consider factors such as public school performance, high school graduation rates, access to medical care, and overall population health. New Mexico’s placement at 48th suggests that residents face significant disadvantages compared with most of the country when it comes to both schooling outcomes and healthcare access.

Even affordability — often cited as a relative advantage in lower-income states — does not provide New Mexico with a competitive edge. The state ranks 25th in affordability, squarely in the middle nationally. That means New Mexico does not enjoy the strong cost-of-living advantage seen in some other low-ranked states such as Alabama or Arkansas, both of which rank near the top for affordability despite struggling elsewhere.

Other states occupying the bottom tier include Louisiana (49th), Arkansas (48th), and Mississippi (47th). But New Mexico’s combination of low safety rankings and weak education and health outcomes ultimately pushes it to the very bottom of the list.

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TOPICS: Business/Economy; Education; Health/Medicine; Local News
KEYWORDS: decapitationstrike; enchantedmothers; newmexico; newmexicolast

[shelterguy]

“”””Minnesota #5? I lived there for 2 years. Winters are unbearable and this was back in 05 and 06 “”””

The winters aren’t all that bad. I suppose it depends on what you are used to. It will be 67 degrees on Monday.

Plus, Minnesota is a great place to live. Not to be confused with Minneapolistan which is a schiffhole.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

The complete list...The Great State of Idaho is #2.

But I cannot believe Mass is #1, NJ is #3, and Minn is #4. Ugh.

Overall Rank	State	Total Score	Affordability Rank	Economy Rank	Education & Health Rank	Quality of Life Rank	Safety Rank
1	Massachusetts	60.23	44	9	1	6	6
2	Idaho	60.19	11	7	21	24	4
3	New Jersey	59.81	48	25	6	7	1
4	Wisconsin	59.66	30	12	9	12	8
5	Minnesota	58.69	14	29	5	10	19
6	Florida	58.51	32	11	26	4	12
7	New Hampshire	58.21	40	3	7	36	3
8	Utah	57.94	6	19	2	29	23
9	New York	57.94	47	23	15	1	7
10	Pennsylvania	57.90	29	35	17	5	11
11	Wyoming	57.90	13	22	30	38	2
12	Iowa	56.23	22	30	20	17	15
13	Maine	56.21	35	8	11	26	10
14	Virginia	56.18	15	17	16	21	18
15	Montana	55.21	27	2	12	33	37
16	North Dakota	54.63	31	5	18	37	27
17	Illinois	54.60	37	47	25	3	9
18	South Dakota	54.12	21	6	34	41	16
19	Colorado	53.58	28	15	3	11	47
20	Nebraska	52.89	33	28	13	27	29
21	Vermont	52.71	42	1	8	45	31
22	North Carolina	52.32	17	16	35	16	35
23	Kansas	52.20	26	27	27	18	32
24	Connecticut	52.09	46	36	4	23	13
25	Rhode Island	52.05	45	14	22	44	5
26	Ohio	51.61	23	45	29	15	22
27	Georgia	51.59	18	24	41	19	21
28	Missouri	51.23	4	21	37	28	36
29	Indiana	51.17	3	48	33	20	24
30	Michigan	51.07	12	46	31	13	33
30	Arizona	51.01	24	18	32	25	34
32	California	50.49	50	20	23	2	42
33	Delaware	50.03	19	34	28	47	28
34	Maryland	49.79	38	37	19	31	30
35	Hawaii	49.38	49	13	10	42	26
36	Washington	49.17	36	10	14	8	50
37	Kentucky	47.53	10	49	38	46	20
38	Texas	47.21	34	40	40	9	38
39	Oregon	47.20	41	31	24	14	48
40	Tennessee	47.02	7	26	43	35	43
41	Alabama	47.01	1	42	46	39	25
42	West Virginia	47.00	2	38	47	43	17
43	Oklahoma	46.34	16	32	44	32	39
44	South Carolina	45.65	9	39	42	34	46
45	Nevada	44.61	39	44	39	22	41
46	Alaska	44.17	43	4	36	50	44
47	Mississippi	43.53	8	43	50	49	14
48	Arkansas	42.07	5	41	45	48	45
49	Louisiana	40.57	20	50	49	40	40
50	New Mexico	39.68	25	33	48	30	49

[johnnygeneric]

I lived in Louisiana and Mississippi and I liked it. The highlight of LA was the wonderful cajun food. My gosh! There is nothing better!!

[Dilbert San Diego]

Statewide rankings are really misleading. Every state has so much variability within the state.

[Disambiguator]

That “best” list is an interesting mix. Especially if you like to exercise your 2A rights.

[Disambiguator]

Living in Silver City you didn’t have to go very far to get back to Arizona!

[Vermont Lt]

Mass has pretty good hospitals. Even our bad ones are better than most community hospitals in the country. And world class specialists are not usually more than an hour away—and they are accessible.

Local education is, for the most part, excellent. Yeah, some of the larger cities struggle. But the suburban schools are good. The state college system is also better than most for more students.

Violent crime outside the cities is pretty rare. We have some hill towns that have their share of creepy wife beaters and kid molesters—but that is true everywhere.

It’s not a horrible place to live if you can tolerate the whack job libs in some of the areas. But I never go to those places.

The biggest downside is the taxes. There are so many taxes. And fees. And that crap.

[rellic]

I have lived in rural Hawaii for the last 25 years.
I was born and raised in CA, SE Los Angeles county, right across from Compton.
Private University educated in, lived, and worked
in WA state 21 years.
Was “head hunted” to work in many East coast
and gulf coast industries.
I ruled out the East coast for social reasons.
I despise Democrats.
My wife ruled out FLA and AK.
I was done with WA state Democrats so
we ended up with HI Democrats.
Thankfully they are poorly educated
and you can bypass their irrationality
with ease.
I would put Hawaii in the top 10 places
to live, if and only if you have skills and
can adapt to living with idiots.
BTW not too many Black people here I wonder why?
Just an observation.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

That sounds a lot like California, too.

[HartleyMBaldwin]

No, in fact for a year or so I worked a temporary job in Silver City but kept my apartment in Tucson, until I got hired for a “permanent” position and moved to NM.

[wjcsux]

I can testify to how bad NM healthcare is. My X was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1996. The doctors in Albuquerque said that she needed radical surgery to survive. My mom was a medical technician at U of A medical center and I contacted her. She was able to get us in to see specialists there. We went back and forth between Albuquerque and Tucson every two weeks to get her taken care of. We did this for six months. She didn’t need radical surgery and recovered just fine.

[Alas Babylon!]

Wallet hub’s best states to live in Top 5:

Top 5 States to Live In

Massachusetts
Idaho
New Jersey
Wisconsin
Minnesota

Just nope. Not even real...

[FamiliarFace]

Well, their top 5 were Massachusetts, Idaho, New Jersey, Wisconsin, and Minnesota.

The only one of those that I’d consider is Wisconsin, and then MAYBE Idaho after that. The fact that they include the other 3 states as high as they did shows you just how out of touch the study was.

[LegendHasIt]

I can’t imagine living anywhere else in the world.

Oh, sure, I’d like to get rid of all the politicians and half of the ‘peasants’ living in Santa Fe, Albuquerque and Las Cruces. But my little part of the state is as near Paradise as I’ll ever see.

[dakine]

Live on Oahu, cause I have to work... No where better in the United States... 🏄 🏌

[Veto!]

A long time ago, I lived on an island off the coast of Seattle. Did nothing but rain in winter, so I packed up the car and went to Florida where I had good friends I could visit . Every single time I drove through New Mexico, sh@t happened. Terrible motels with dirty sheets gawd awful food requiring many barf alerts, dangerous looking people.

Finally got smart and took the northern route. A ittle longer but far more safe and pleasant. Who knew that North Dakota rocked? Great freeways, few cars and trucks, clean motels and halfway decent road food. People were friendly too.

[Veto!]

I lived in Idaho briefly but my daughter and husband lived there for ages.

Looking at that list, I’ve lived in eleven other states and visited many more.

[Vermont Lt]

CA has a LOT more environmental crap going on. And a lot more social programs. In MA, for example, ALL of the schools are controlled at the local level. My town has insane taxes, but the schools are consistently rated among the best in the state. Our town tends to focus on academics and no so much the social justice crap (ie: No walk outs, not as much LGBT stuff and MORE football, girls LAX, and hockey.)

Our Gov is a lesbian nightmare and our statehouse is run by lunatics. But every six years or so we elect a republican governor to clean stuff up.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

“ MAYBE Idaho”?

Come on out and we will show you around. You will change your mind.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

50-70 years ago it was a great place to live. Great schools plenty of great jobs in the oil-gas and mining.
Now it has surpassed Arkan-saw and Mississippi in the race to the bottom. What Happened!
Two things. Arkan-saw began electing republican Governors and is now a great place to live, at least in the NW Corner,
and New Mexico began electing Californicated Democrats, and is now the worst state. Still beautiful but as my brother-in-law said, You can’t eat mountains.
https://nmeducation.org/new-mexico-50th-in-education-again/