{"id":429367,"date":"2026-10-16T10:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T10:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/429367\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T10:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T10:08:08","slug":"florida-ranks-among-the-best-states-in-america-heres-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/429367\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida ranks among the best states in America. Here\u2019s why"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 U.S. News & World Report<\/a> has now released its latest annual \u201cBest States\u201d ranking, looking at which areas performed best across a wide variety of metrics.<\/p>\n

Researchers said that the used eight main factors to judge all 50 states: education, healthcare, economy, infrastructure, opportunity, fiscal stability, natural environments, and crime\/corrections.<\/p>\n

Florida finished No. 8 overall in this year\u2019s report, placing the state in the national Top 10 in a year when Midwest and Sun Belt states posted some of the biggest gains.<\/p>\n

Where Florida ranks<\/p>\n

From the 2026 rankings:<\/p>\n

Overall: No. 8<\/p>\n

Education: No. 3\u00a0(behind Colorado and New Jersey)<\/p>\n

Healthcare: No. 20<\/p>\n

Economy: No. 7<\/p>\n

Infrastructure: No. 11<\/p>\n

Opportunity: No. 47<\/p>\n

Fiscal Stability: No. 16<\/p>\n

Natural Environment: No. 15<\/p>\n

Crime & Corrections: No. 14<\/p>\n

While Florida managed to crack the overall Top 10 \u2014 alongside Utah (No. 1), South Dakota (No. 2) and Minnesota (No. 3) \u2014 it actually fell from its No. 6 spot last year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Florida\u2019s takeaway<\/p>\n

Florida\u2019s overall showing suggests a strong balance across the scorecard \u2014 and its Top 3 finish in Education stands out as a clear bright spot in 2026.<\/p>\n

But again, the Sunshine State fell from its No. 1 spot last year for its Economy and Higher Education.<\/p>\n

Who else made headlines<\/p>\n

Utah\u00a0stayed\u00a0No. 1 overall\u00a0for the fourth straight year, but ranked\u00a0No. 48 in Natural Environment.<\/p>\n

Texas\u00a0jumped to\u00a0No. 1 in Economy.<\/p>\n

North Dakota\u00a0surged from\u00a0No. 12 to No. 4 overall, part of a Midwest-heavy reshuffle near the top.<\/p>\n

The full ranking is as follows:<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the full breakdown of factors used in the study is as follows:<\/p>\n

EDUCATION (15.79%)<\/p>\n

Higher Education \u2014 Includes graduation rates, tuition and educational attainment<\/p>\n

Pre-K-12 \u2014 Includes college readiness, graduation rates, and test scores<\/p>\n

HEALTHCARE (15.51%)<\/p>\n

Healthcare Access \u2014 Includes insurance enrollment, medical visits, and affordability<\/p>\n

Healthcare Quality \u2014 Includes quality of Medicare, nursing homes and hospitals<\/p>\n

Public Health \u2014 Includes rates of mortality, obesity, smoking and suicide<\/p>\n

ECONOMY (12.88%)<\/p>\n

Business Environment \u2014 Includes business creation rate, patent creation rate, low tax burden, and top company headquarters<\/p>\n

Employment \u2014 Includes job growth, unemployment rates, and labor force participation<\/p>\n

Growth \u2014 Includes net migration, GDP growth, and growth of young population<\/p>\n

INFRASTRUCTURE (12.74%)<\/p>\n

Energy \u2014 Includes electricity price, power grid reliability, and renewable energy usage<\/p>\n

Internet Access \u2014 Includes broadband subscription rate and access to gigabit internet<\/p>\n

Transportation \u2014 Includes bridge quality, commute time, public transit usage, and road quality<\/p>\n

OPPORTUNITY (12.20%)<\/p>\n

Affordability \u2014 Includes cost of living and housing affordability<\/p>\n

Economic Opportunity \u2014 Includes food insecurity, household income and poverty rates<\/p>\n

Equality \u2014 Includes education and income gaps by race and gender<\/p>\n

FISCAL STABILITY (12.19%)<\/p>\n

NATURAL ENVIRONMENT (9.69%)<\/p>\n

CRIME & CORRECTIONS (9.01%)<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORLANDO, Fla. \u2013 U.S. News & World Report has now released its latest annual \u201cBest States\u201d ranking, looking…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[6919,28,785,139,141,140],"class_list":["post-429367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-features","tag-florida","tag-florida-ranked","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}