Maryland Places High In Best State Ranking By U.S. News

Maryland is seen as a state full of opportunity with strong education and health care systems in place, which rank it among the best states in the country, according to a new set of rankings released Tuesday by U.S. News & World Report. The rankings place Maryland 13th on the list of best states in the U.S. Neighboring Virginia ranked No. 20th overall.

In determining the rankings for 2018, U.S. News evaluated how each state ranked in 77 metrics across eight categories. The eight categories were weighted based on the average of two years of data from a national survey that asked over 30,000 respondents to prioritize each category in their state.

Owing to the intense debate surrounding health care, the topic was weighted as the most important category by citizens across the country. Hawaii ranked No. 1 in the health care category, followed by Iowa and Washington. Virginia ranked 29th in the category. (For more news like this, find your local Patch here. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app; download the free Patch Android app here.)

Here's part of what the writers at U.S. News said of Maryland:

"Home to the Chesapeake Bay, Maryland is known for its blue crabs and the city of Baltimore, a major historic trading port, baseball power and birthplace of the national anthem. Francis Scott Key wrote “The Star-Spangled Banner” as he watched the American flag wave above Fort McHenry on the harbor during the War of 1812, signaling Britain's defeat. ...

"Today, Maryland continues to be integral to the nation’s progress. Adjacent to the nation’s capital, Maryland employs the fourth largest percentage of federal workers of any state and has more than 60 federal agencies. From its crowded cities to its rugged mountains and waterfront towns on the Eastern Shore, Maryland is small yet eclectic. The state’s largest city, Baltimore, is a hub of diversity, with its Inner Harbor attractions and Johns Hopkins Hospital, one of the top medical institutions in the nation, and Johns Hopkins University.

"The U.S. Naval Academy is nestled in Annapolis, which served as the nation’s temporary capital at the end of the Revolutionary War. Ocean City is another popular tourist destination, where vacationers flock to the beach each summer for a kid-friendly getaway."

Here's how Maryland ranked in all eight categories evaluated by U.S. News:

Crime and Corrections: 26
Economy: 24
Education: 11
Fiscal stability: 23
Health care: 16
Infrastructure: 25
Opportunity: 2
Quality of life: 31

You can find more insight on Maryland and how it ranks in the various categories and subcategories here.

Overall, Iowa ranked as the best state in the U.S. because of its strong performance in the opportunity and health care categories. Minnesota ranked No. 2 and Utah ranked No. 3 on the list. U.S. News' findings showed that states that ranked highly in the education category also ranked highly overall. Eight of the top ten states overall also ranked among the top 10 for education. Massachusetts, which ranked No.1 for education and Utah, which ranked No.3 for education placed in the top 10 states overall.

Colorado and Utah ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the economy category while Iowa ranked No. 1 for infrastructure. New Hampshire ranked No. 1 for opportunity and Maine ranked No. 1 for crime and corrections.

The top 10 states in the U.S. are:

1. Iowa
2. Minnesota
3. Utah
4. North Dakota
5. New Hampshire
6. Washington
7. Nebraska
8. Massachusetts
9. Vermont
10. Colorado

The data for the rankings came from McKinsey & Company's Leading States Index. U.S. News ranked the categories and subcategories from 1 to 50 before creating overall rankings. (Read more about U.S. News' methodology here.)

See the full U.S. News rankings here.

By Feroze Dhanoa, Patch National Staff

Image of Chesapeake Bay Bridge via Stephen Munday /Allsport/Getty Images