Best States Rankings 2026 by USNews

[john_marsten_1873]

Utah ranked 1st overall (#2 on economy). What’s interesting is that only once in the last decade (2016) was Utah a donor state. They like to keep their money and hover relatively close to the break even point - still being a moocher in last 9/10 years.

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www.usnews.com

I did a little reranking, excluding all moocher states. How can you rank higher in economy when you mooch off of others?

USNews Rank	State	Donor Rank
3	Minnesota	7
6	New Hampshire	9
9	Washington	6
11	Massachusetts	4
18	Connecticut	9
20	New Jersey	2

States Ranked by donor status (excluding moocher states):

Rank	State	Average annual balance
1	California	-$29B
2	New Jersey	-$26B
3	New York	-$23B
4	Massachusetts	-$12B
5	Illinois	-$5B
6	Washington	-$4B
7	Minnesota	-$2.5B
8	New Hampshire	-$530M
9	Connecticut	-$155M

 

[RustVendor]

i think US news may be full of it becuase they list Ca 26th for economy despite having the largest economy and still one of the fastest growing despite having no population growth. Texas and Florida are growing slightly more but are experiencing high population growth so it makes sense.