PEORIA, Ill. (WMBD) – Illinois, the Land of Lincoln, is home to over 12 million people as well as many beautiful towns and cities among the cornfields.
The Prairie State is listed at #36 on the U.S. News 2023 Best States list. Illinois has moved down six spots from 30 in 2021.
The states were ranked in categories of crime & corrections, economy, education, fiscal stability, health care, infrastructure, natural environment, and opportunity.
The categories that Illinois did better on were crime & corrections (12th), education (12th), and infrastructure (19th).
The categories that Illinois did not do so well on were natural environment (38th), economy (39th), and fiscal stability (50th).
Illinois also ranked 28th in health care and 35th in opportunity.
Illinois had one neighbor that ranked lower on the list. Kentucky is ranked a few states below Illinois at 39. Its other neighbors that were ranked higher were Missouri at 30, Indiana at 29, Wisconsin at 8, and Iowa at 7.
Iowa shines in opportunity at #3, fiscal stability at #8, and education at #13.
The top state on the Best States list is Utah who were ranked in the top ten when it came to economy (1st), fiscal stability (1st), infrastructure (4th), education (5th), and health care (7th). Utah still got first considering its natural environment category was ranked 46th in the nation.
The state at the bottom of the list is Louisiana, which came in last for crime & corrections and economy. It was also ranked 49th in infrastructure and natural environment, 48th in opportunity, 46th in education, 45th in health care, and 38th in fiscal stability.
View the full 2023 Best States List here.
