Maryland Ranks 13th In U.S. News 'Best States' List

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BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Maryland has been ranked 13th on U.S. News's list of "best states."

The score is 16 percent health care, 16 percent education, 14 percent economy, 13 percent opportunity, 12 percent infrastructure, 11 percent crime and corrections, 10 percent fiscal stability and 8 percent quality of life.

Maryland's best ranking is opportunity, where it comes in second, after New Hampshire. It's next best rankings are education, 11th, and health care, 16th. The Free State has middle-of-the-road rankings in everything else, coming in 23rd in fiscal stability, 24th in economy, 25th in infrastructure, 26th in crime and corrections and 31st in quality of life.

The first ranked states in every other category are: Hawaii in healthcare, Massachusetts in education, Colorado in economy, Iowa in infrastructure (Iowa also came first overall), Maine in crime and corrections, Utah if fiscal stability and North Dakota in quality of life.

"The data driving these rankings were drawn from extensive and reliable governmental and private sources as well as proprietary data including a national survey of what matters most to citizens around the country," the U.S. News report says. "Among the eight main categories measured in the Best States rankings, more than five dozen subcategories of metrics are taken into account."

The full list is as follows:

#1 Iowa
#2 Minnesota
#3 Utah
#4 North Dakota
#5 New Hampshire
#6 Washington
#7 Nebraska
#8 Massachusetts
#9 Vermont
#10 Colorado
#11 Wisconsin
#12 Idaho
#13 Maryland
#14 South Dakota
#15 Florida
#16 Oregon
#17 Hawaii
#18 Delaware
#19 New Jersey
#20 Virginia
#21 Wyoming
#22 Maine
#23 North Carolina
#24 Connecticut
#25 New York
#26 Tennessee
#27 Montana
#28 Rhode Island
#29 Kansas
#30 Missouri
#31 Georgia
#32 California
#33 Indiana
#34 Nevada
#35 Illinois
#36 Texas
#37 Michigan
#38 Pennsylvania
#39 Arizona
#40 Ohio
#41 Kentucky
#42 South Carolina
#43 Oklahoma
#44 Alaska
#45 Arkansas
#46 Alabama
#47 West Virginia
#48 New Mexico
#49 Mississippi
#50 Louisiana

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