California Isn't Exactly Paradise For Millennials

REDONDO BEACH, CA – Millennials are the most polarizing generation alive. They're often depicted as entitled, dependent on their parents, and emotionally fragile by the generations before them, as they fight to prove they're hard-working and independent.

Baby Boomers should watch out, because Millennials – people ranging from their early 20s to early 30s – are projected to overtake them as America's largest generation, according to Pew Research Center. These young adults are also responsible for 21 percent of all consumer discretionary spending in the United States. Despite their trillion-dollar purchasing power and college degrees, millennials are economically worse off than their parents, according to WalletHub.

However, the millennial experience isn't one-size-fits-all across the United States. WalletHub examined the best and worst states for millennials across 30 key metrics, ranging from millennial unemployment rate, to millennial voter-turnout rate.

Even though California seems like a millennial paradise between the tech giants in the Silicon Valley and gorgeous beaches throughout, it ranked 22nd in the WalletHub study of best states for millennials with a total score of 49.97 out of 100.

The Golden State ranked 48th in Affordability, 23rd in Education & Health, 2nd in Quality of Life, 30th in Economic Health, and 34th in Civic Engagement. The results expose one of California's weaknesses – it's gorgeous, but expensive.

The Top 10 Best States For Millennials Are:

1. District of Columbia
2. North Dakota
3. Minnesota
4. Massachusetts
5. Iowa
6. Wisconsin
7. Utah
8. Nebraska
9. Colorado
10. South Dakota

To read more about the WalletHub study of best and worst states for millennials, click here. Do you agree with the results? Let us know in the comments.

WalletHub Methodology

In order to determine the most livable places for millennials, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across five key dimensions: 1) Affordability, 2) Education & Health, 3) Quality of Life, 4) Economic Health and 5) Civic Engagement.

We evaluated those dimensions using 30 relevant metrics, which are listed below with their corresponding weights. Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the most favorable conditions for millennials.

We then determined each state and the District’s weighted average across all metrics to calculate its total score and used the resulting scores to rank-order our sample.

For the purpose of this study, “millennials” are defined as individuals who were born between 1981 and 1997.

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