U.S. News & World Report just released its annual Best States list for 2019, and Mississippi clawed one rung higher than its 49th spot in the 2018 list.

The No. 1 spot went to Washington and No. 2 to New Hampshire.

Louisiana took 50th.

The magazine and website’s annual list is a set of rankings and analysis that uses eight different categories to size up the states and provide discussion fodder for citizens everywhere.

The categories are: health care, education, economy, opportunity, infrastructure, crime and corrections, fiscal stability and natural environment.

The weights of the categories are as follows:

Health Care: 16%
Education: 15.8%
Economy: 13.8%
Infrastructure: 12.9%
Opportunity: 12.7%
Fiscal Stability: 10.5%
Crime & Corrections: 9.9%
Natural Environment: 8.4%

Not surprisingly Mississippi ranks well on natural environment — we all know our state is beautiful — and on crime and statistics. Mississippi ranked 11th on natural environment scores and 26th on crime and corrections.

But Mississippi ranked dead last on health care and 46th on education.

Economy was 48th and infrastructure, opportunity and fiscal stability ranked 45th, 44th and 44th respectively.

But in the Deep South Tri-state area, Mississippi can smugly look to the east and west and feel good. Alabama was 49th (a fall from its 47th spot last year) and Louisiana held firm in its last-place spot from the previous year.

To see the detailed listing for Mississippi visit:
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/mississippi

For the full listings visit:
https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states