Another Ranking, Another Last Place for Louisiana

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BATON ROUGE, La. (KALB) - According to the U.S. News & World Report's "Best States" ranking, Louisiana is the 50th best state, also known as the worst state.

The yearly ranking "draws on thousands of data points to measure how well states are performing for their citizens," in a variety of categories like health care, education, and the state's economy.

This might not be all too surprising though, Louisiana also ranked dead last in the 2017 report.

The health care and education categories are weighted most heavily into the position of each state. Louisiana ranked 47th in health care and 49th in education.

The worst mark for the Pelican State though was in the opportunity category, which like our final ranking, was the worst out of all 50 states in the U.S. This category "measures poverty, housing affordability and equality for women, minorities and people with disabilities."

In all, Louisiana received 47th in health care, 49th in education, 44th in economy, 50th in opportunity, 44th in infrastructure, 48th in crime & corrections, 48th in fiscal stability, and 42nd in quality of life.

Mississippi, New Mexico, West Virginia and Alabama joined Louisiana at the bottom of the list. The best state according to the report was Iowa. To see the full list you can go to the related links section of this page.

In response to Louisiana's low ranking, Shauna Sanford, a spokeswoman for Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards released a statement, saying that the ranking "does a disservice to Louisiana by using grossly outdated information that in no way accurately reflects the current gains being made throughout our state, especially in the areas of health care and education." Going further to highlight the Governor's actions on expanding Medicaid and keeping the TOPS program fully funded.

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