Minnesota Ranked No. 1 State In America For Quality Of Life: Here's Why

ST. PAUL, MN — Minnesota was recently ranked as the top state in the nation in a new quality-of-life study released by the bipartisan State of the Nation Project.

The project’s 2026 “State of the States” report compared all 50 states and Washington, D.C., using 29 measures across 14 topics, including education, the economy, physical health, violence, labor force, civic life, and more.

Minnesota had the best average ranking across the 29 measures in the study.

Minnesota ranked in the top tier nationally on measures including the following:

• Labor force participation rate: No. 3
• Education: No. 4
• Social capital: No. 4

• Voter participation: No. 3
• Young adults employed or in school: No. 4
• Poverty: No. 4
• Social isolation: No. 4
• Volunteerism: No. 4
• Life expectancy: No. 8
• Shootings: No. 8
• Low birthweight: No. 8
• Academic test scores: No. 7
• Employment-to-population ratio: No. 3

But the report also found several weak spots for Minnesota.

The state ranked lower in:

• Civil liberties: No. 32
• Minnesota also ranked poorly for youth depression, coming in at No. 43 out of 51.

The report said Minnesota’s youth depression trend has been worsening more than the national trend.

Overall, the report found that Minnesota is improving faster, or worsening more slowly, than the country overall on several measures, including income inequality, freedom of the press, long-term unemployment, poverty, hourly earnings growth, voter participation, and satisfaction with current life.

The State of the Nation Project said it used state-level data going back to 1990 when possible. Each measure was evaluated by current rank, state trend and how the state’s trend compares with the country as a whole.

The State of the Nation Project said its study involved scholars and policy experts from institutions across the political spectrum.

Check out the full study here.