Here's Where Illinois Ranks Among States — And Why

ILLINOIS — A new ranking released Tuesday by U.S. News & World Report says Illinois is the 36th overall in meeting the diverse needs of its residents.

The rankings, which U.S. News first launched in 2017, assess the states across eight categories and 71 metrics. Here’s where Illinois ranked in each of them:

Health care: 24th
Education: 14th
Natural environment: 45th
Opportunity: 35th
Economy: 42nd
Crime and corrections: 15th
Infrastructure: 22nd
Fiscal stability: 50th

According to U.S. News & World Report, Illinois covers 57,913 square miles. Forty-six percent of residents are college educated. The GDP is $1.1 trillion, while the median income for its 12,710,158 residents is $47,015.

Utah topped the list for the third consecutive year. The state has never slipped below the top five in the economy category in the history of the Best States rankings, U.S. News said. Here’s the top 10:

1. Utah
2. New Hampshire
3. Idaho
4. Minnesota
5. Nebraska
6. Florida
7. Vermont
8. South Dakota
9. Massachusetts
10. Washington

U.S. News said many of the top-ranked states put a big priority on education — the highest-weighted category of the 2025 rankings based on new survey results showing what areas Americans believe their states should prioritize, and which issues present the most pressing concerns.

Five of the top 10 states overall also placed among the top 10 in education, while just one — Massachusetts — did the same in the category carrying the second-highest weight, health care.

Even high-performing states don’t excel in every rankings category, U.S. News said.

Utah, for example, ranks near the bottom for environment (No. 48), burdened by poor scores for industrial toxins and pollution health risk. Florida — among the nation’s worst performers for housing affordability and income equality — ranks 47th for opportunity, and South Dakota ranks 46th for health care, weighed down in part by a U.S. News assessment of hospital quality in the state.

There was little movement among low performers in the rankings, which U.S. News said were concentrated primarily in the South but also included states in the West, Midwest and Northeast, as well as Alaska.

The lowest-ranked state is Louisiana. Other states in the bottom 10 are Alaska, Mississippi, New Mexico, West Virginia, Alabama, Arkansas, Michigan, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania.

» Read more about the Best States methodology.