Georgia is Nation's Fifth Worst State to Have a Baby

Georgia is the fifth worst state to have a baby, according to a new survey from a personal finance website.

WalletHub also ranked the state fifth-worse in its care of underprivileged children.

WalletHub's 2016’s Best & Worst States to Have a Baby report ranked Georgia No. 47 in a survey comparing the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 17 metrics, including hospital Caesarean-delivery charges and annual average infant-care costs to number of pediatricians per capita and infant mortality rates.

Only New York, Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi scored lower than Georgia.

Vermont was best in the nation, followed by Maine, Connecticut, Minnesota and New Hampshire.

Here's a look at how Georgia scored in several categories in terms of child delivery, on a scale of "1=Best" and "25=Avg.":

• 46th – Infant-Mortality Rate
• 47th – Rate of Low Birth-Weight
• 29th – Number of Pediatricians & Family Doctors per Capita
• 32nd – Number of Child-Care Centers per Capita
• 35th – ‘Parental Leave Policy’ Score
• 43rd – Rate of Preterm Births

You can read the entire report here.

The website also completed an analysis of 2016’s Best & Worst States for Underprivileged Children. It looked at 16 key metrics ranging from infant-mortality rate and child food-insecurity rate to percentage of maltreated children.

Here's how Georgia fared on the same scale:

• 43rd – percent of children in households with below-poverty income
• 24th – % of maltreated children
• 46th – child food-insecurity rate
• 42nd – % of children without health insurance
• 46th – infant mortality rate
• 42nd – % of children in single-parent families
• 43rd – ratio of children in renter-occupied to owner-occupied homes

You can read the entire report here.

August is Child Support Awareness Month.

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