Best & Worst States to Raise a Family in 2025 – WalletHub Study

CityBiz ^ | 01/13/2025

[SeekAndFind]

With the cost of raising a child to age 18 reaching well over $300,000, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on the Best & Worst States to Raise a Family in 2025, as well as expert commentary, to highlight the states that are affordable, safe, well-educated and enjoyable for families to live in.

WalletHub compared the 50 states across 50 key indicators of family-friendliness. Our data set includes factors like the median annual family income, housing affordability, health care quality, crime rate, and school quality.

Best States for Families	Worst States for Families
1. Massachusetts	41. Arizona
2. Minnesota	42. South Carolina
3. North Dakota	43. Louisiana
4. Nebraska	44. Arkansas
5. New Hampshire	45. Alabama
6. New York	46. Oklahoma
7. Illinois	47. Nevada
8. Wisconsin	48. West Virginia
9. Maine	49. Mississippi
10. Connecticut	50. New Mexico

Best vs. Worst

• Utah has the lowest separation & divorce rate, 1.7 times lower than in New Mexico, which has the highest rate.
• New Hampshire has the lowest share of families living in poverty, 3.3 times lower than in Mississippi, which has the highest share.
• South Dakota has the lowest average annual cost of early childcare (as a share of median family income), 2.7 times lower than in New York, which has the highest.
• Maine has the fewest violent crimes per capita, 7.6 times fewer than in New Mexico, which has the most.

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE

[AbolishCSEU]

Obviously written by a Leftard.

[Mount Athos]

I bet their model is 50% how “friendly” a state is to gays.

So all these “best” articles have the same order in their list. Best state to retire! Best state for quality of life! Best state to raise a family! All with the same corrupted criteria

[jacknhoo]

Define a family.

[FlingWingFlyer]

The top 10 are tranny friendly.

[21twelve]

We’re thinking about moving to the Nashville area. I looked up “Gun ratings for Tennessee”.

It surprised me when I saw it got a grade of “F”.

But then I noticed New Jersey had got an “A”.

It was from some liberal site.

[suthener]

Looking at the bottom 10 or so this list is incredibly racist.

[Flaming Conservative]

Not worth much if the article doesn’t say why the worst States are the worst. My State was one of the worst, but why?

[SeekAndFind]

RE: Not worth much if the article doesn’t say why the worst States are the worst. My State was one of the worst, but why?

This site from WalletHub referred to by this article details the particular criteria to rand the best and worst states to raise a family. Have a look:

https://wallethub.com/edu/best-states-to-raise-a-family/31065

[strider44]

Other than my military service I’ve lived my entire life in Massachusetts. While I hate the politics, it’s a good place to live if you have money. My wife and I make high 6 figures so can afford our 3 kids in a wealthy suburb. But there’s plenty of shitty towns too.

[freebilly]

Best? Most are states where the taxation and liberal policies are so foolish that normal people have already fled....

[Chickensoup]

The Maine Stats are incorrect

Violence has skyrocketed in Maine and so have cartel drugs.

[gitmo]

I wonder what they mean by Socio Economics Rank

[Flaming Conservative]

Yes, I read the article. But it didn’t explain why states ranked as they did; only the rankings, which don’t really give any information.

[Reeses]

this list is incredibly racist

Also, incredibly climate changing if you believe the hoax, favoring freezing snow states. Unless a Yankee has a small profitable factory in their basement generating waste heat, burning large amounts of energy for comfort is a carbon footprint disaster.

[metmom]

Clearly because raising a family in leftist hellholes like CT and MA, is NOT a good idea.

Even Maine is not a great place. Too many illegals in Portland, and a lower standard of living elsewhere. Plus, LOTS of bugs and inhospitable climate.

[wgmalabama]

Please don’t move to Alabama to raise a family or kill a family or even move here. We only have one dentist in the entire state and one doctor that sees both human and animals. Please stay in the top 10 BLM states. We do assign you a cousin wife at the boarder. So if you have a hot first cousin then there is that but just stay away from Alabama.

[wgmalabama]

We also require your first cousin marriage to be opposite sex cousins.

[dangus]

Absolutely unbelievable. Massachusetts is such a wonderful state to raise a family that most Bostonians who can afford to send their kids to private school despite also being taxed to pay for public school.

[NEMDF]

Nebraska is shown as 4th best. I have to think that is not based on being friendly to gays, because Nebraska is not particularly so. I have lived here for 34 years, and get frustrated by “activists” trying to change the culture, but it is still a very red state in most ways.