We may think we live in a great place to raise a family, and you’re likely right. But a new study ranking the states as best, or worst places to raise a family is not very kind to Mississippi.
WalletHub is a personal finance company which is based in Miami, Florida. It offers a variety of free consumer tools, including daily updated credit scores and reports, credit monitoring, and financial product comparisons for credit cards, personal loans, car insurance, and bank accounts. WalletHub also conducts research and publishes studies on various financial topics and recently came out with its latest ranking of states for best, or worst places to raise a family. Mississippi ranked 49th among the 50 states in the report.
According to WalletHub, certain states make it easier than others to raise a family. The ideal state is one that’s affordable to live in that also offers a high degree of safety and good job prospects, on top of quality education, healthcare and entertainment.
To help people find cities with the perfect combination of those factors, 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.
Only New Mexico did worse than Mississippi in the ranking. Other Deep South states also did not fare well.
“Raising a family has become significantly more expensive in recent years as the cost of living has risen quickly,” said WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo. “In fact, it can cost a family well over $300,000 to raise a child to age 18, according to statistics from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In light of the expensive nature of being a parent and the responsibility it entails, it’s important to live in a city that is affordable while still providing quality health care, education, safety and opportunities for enrichment.”
The areas where Mississippi was ranked lowest are in what WalletHub called Family Fun (49), Health and Safety (50), affordability (42), infant mortality (50), percentage of families in poverty (50), along with separation and divorce rate (47).
Of course, some of us will still argue that we live in a great place, but if you want to check the complete report, visit the WalletHub website.
By the way, Massachusetts was ranked number one and Minnesota finished second.
