{"id":788992,"date":"2026-07-28T08:59:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T08:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/788992\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T08:59:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T08:59:12","slug":"utah-ranked-best-state-in-the-nation-4th-year-in-a-row-deseret-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/788992\/","title":{"rendered":"Utah ranked best state in the nation 4th year in a row \u2013 Deseret News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Utah earns best state ranking for the fourth year in a row.\u00a0Utah\u2019s continued success is due to uniquely balanced success across almost all categories.\u00a0The state\u2019s economy stands out, driven by a growing young population.\u00a0Natural Environment continues to be Utah\u2019s weakest ranking.\u00a0Utah faces increased competition from other states with faster growth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Utah is the best state in the nation for the fourth year in a row, according to the annual best state rankings by U.S. News & World Report<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Utah\u2019s four years at the top is the longest of any state since the U.S. News & World Report published its first rankings in 2017. <\/p>\n

\u201cBeing named the No. 1 state is an honor, but what matters most is what that ranking represents: hardworking people, strong families, and neighbors who look out for one another,\u201d Gov. Spencer Cox said in a press release. <\/p>\n

\"\"Gov. Spencer Cox, center, Sarah Willoughby, vice president and general manager of strategic deterrent systems at Northrop Grumman, center left, and Benjamin R. “Ben” Davies, corporate vice president and president at Northrop Grumman Defense Systems, center right, and others pose with construction machinery during the Roy Innovation Center Legacy Building groundbreaking at the Roy Innovation Center in Roy on Tuesday, July 14, 2026. | Tess Crowley, Deseret News <\/p>\n

\u201cUtah\u2019s success has never been about government,\u201d he continued. \u201cIt comes from Utahns who serve, build, innovate, and invest in the future. I\u2019m grateful to everyone who helps make our state the best place to live, work, and raise a family.\u201d <\/p>\n

Evan Comen, senior data editor at U.S. News & World Report, said Utah\u2019s success is fueled by \u201ca very uniquely balanced profile across all the categories\u201d used to determine state rankings. <\/p>\n

In addition to the No. 1 overall ranking, Utah achieved top 10 results in five of the eight categories used to assign rankings. Utah\u2019s highest rankings include in Economy (No. 2), Fiscal Stability (No. 2) and Infrastructure (No. 4), continuing Utah\u2019s streak of never placing<\/a> outside of the top five in the economy category. <\/p>\n

Utah was also ranked No. 1 in the growth of young population, evenly dispersed wealth distribution and low smoking rate.<\/p>\n

Along with Utah\u2019s successes, however, comes a noticeable weakness: Utah was near the bottom of the barrel in the Natural Environment category, ranking No. 48 out of 50. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the first time the report has placed Utah low on this scale. Utah has ranked in the bottom five for Natural Environment every year since the category became part of the rankings in 2018. <\/p>\n

The 2026 rankings show that the Beehive State is still the bee\u2019s knees, but with growing competition, how much longer will Utah have a hold on its reign?<\/p>\n

A growing economy fueled by a young population\"\"The Salt Lake City skyline is pictured in front of the Wasatch Mountains on Tuesday, May 26, 2026. | Isaac Hale, Deseret News <\/p>\n

Utah has long performed strongly in the U.S. News & World Report\u2019s economic evaluations, and this year was no exception. <\/p>\n

Comen said Utah\u2019s economic success is due to strong GDP growth, high labor force participation and abundant job growth. Utah also ranked fourth highest in business creation and was highly ranked in patent creation. <\/p>\n

These factors are influenced by the \u201cdynamism and innovation\u201d of the \u201cfast-growing\u201d young population, Comen said, referring to the increasing number of young adults ages 25 to 29 in Utah. <\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are both being born in Utah and staying there and moving to Utah to find jobs and education opportunities,\u201d Comen said. \u201cThat growth of the young population, I think, contributes to a lot of the other economy metrics in our study.\u201d <\/p>\n

The best state rankings \u201cserve as a critical tool for understanding what drives long-term success in states across the country,\u201d U.S. News & World Report said in a press release. By that conclusion, Utahns can feel confident about their state\u2019s current achievement and where the state is headed. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think Utahns can feel pretty good about their decision to be living in such a fast-growing, prosperous state,\u201d Comen said. <\/p>\n

Competition from other growing states\"\"Cars slowly move through traffic on southbound I-15 in Lehi as traffic flows more freely northbound on Friday, May 23, 2025. | Isaac Hale, Deseret News <\/p>\n

Though the overall No. 1 ranking still went to Utah, the economy was the only category where Utah saw improvement from 2025. The state moved negatively in several categories. <\/p>\n

Compared to the 2025 ranking scorecard, Utah moved down in education, healthcare, infrastructure, opportunity and fiscal stability. These movements don\u2019t necessarily show a decline in Utah\u2019s performance in these areas, but rather that other states experienced more substantial growth in these areas within the last year. <\/p>\n

Comen said that even though Utah moved down in several others, the state still received the top ranking because of the even spread of success across most categories, which is what keeps Utah competing for the top spot. <\/p>\n

\u201cWith Utah specifically, even if they have declines in specific category rankings, they still have just managed to balance those categories better than every other state for four years in a row,\u201d Comen said. <\/p>\n

\u2018Room for improvement\u2019 in Natural Environment ranking\"\"A paraglider flies above smog from an inversion at the Salt Lake County Flight Park in Draper on Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News <\/p>\n

The most obvious area where Utah fell behind other states was in the Natural Environment ranking, where Utah was ranked No. 48 out of the 50 states. This category grades states on air and water quality and pollution. <\/p>\n

Comen said the low Natural Environment ranking is likely \u201can unfortunate byproduct of natural geography.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the high concentrations of pollution in Utah, it\u2019s kind of an unfortunate byproduct of this, like, bowl effect you see in the Wasatch Front.\u201d<\/p>\n

Comen said experts that were consulted for the rankings said the Wasatch Front mountain ranges often trap air pollution, leading to poor air quality rankings in the best state metrics. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s certainly not to say that Utah doesn\u2019t have, like, some of the nicest natural amenities in the country,\u201d Comen added. \u201cThey have awesome national parks and stuff, but these measures are mostly looking at outcomes that states can improve on, so in pollution and air and water quality, there is room for improvement.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the meantime, the fact that the natural environment seems to be Utah\u2019s only weakness shows an overall strength to Utah\u2019s success.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery other state has kind of multiple overlapping weaknesses that can drag its score down,\u201d Comen said. \u201cBut Utah is unique that it does have high scores across every, almost every category.\u201d<\/p>\n

Utah could face competition for top ranking in coming years\"\"Silicon Slopes area in the Lehi area on Wednesday, July 9, 2025. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News <\/p>\n

Several national trends emerged based on the data collected in surveys conducted by U.S. News & World Report. <\/p>\n

While Utah kept its No. 1 spot, the rest of the top 5 states \u201cchanged meaningfully,\u201d U.S. News & World Report states. <\/p>\n

Many of these shifts may have been caused by a growing change in the country\u2019s economic landscape. <\/p>\n

Wealth in the U.S. used to be heavily concentrated in coastal cities, but recent data discussed in the report shows that wealth and job creation are now spreading into the Sun Belt and Mountain West. <\/p>\n

The shift may be due to rising costs of living that push workers outside of major cities, U.S. News & World Report notes. Other reasons may include federal policy that diverts funds from traditional tech hubs or the rise of remote work, the report continues.<\/p>\n

If the Mountain West economy continues to expand, Utah might have more competition in coming years for its spot as the Western economic powerhouse. <\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of our economy metrics have to do with growth, so that can change a lot year to year,\u201d Comen said. \u201cThe category that Utah performs best in, that is a highly competitive category … so I would say yes, Utah can expect greater competition from neighboring states and new states that maybe weren\u2019t considered as competitive in past years.\u201d <\/p>\n

A look at the methodology<\/p>\n

U.S. News & World Report collected data from over two dozen sources in preparing the rankings. States are measured using 71 metrics across the eight unique categories. <\/p>\n

Each category is given a unique weight based upon survey results collected by U.S. News & World Report that provide guidance on which functions of a state are most important to residents. <\/p>\n

The categories are weighted as follows from most heavily to least heavily: Education, Health Care, Economy, Infrastructure, Opportunity, Fiscal Stability, Natural Environment and Crime & Correction.<\/p>\n

This is the eighth edition of the U.S. News & World Report best state rankings. <\/p>\n

Utah\u2019s 2026 rankings<\/p>\n

Overall: No. 1<\/p>\n

Education: No. 6<\/p>\n

Healthcare: No. 18<\/p>\n

Economy: No. 2<\/p>\n

Infrastructure: No. 4<\/p>\n

Opportunity: No. 24<\/p>\n

Fiscal Stability: No. 2<\/p>\n

Natural Environment: No. 48<\/p>\n

Crime & Correction: No. 7<\/p>\n

Top 10 states in 2026 rankingsUtahSouth DakotaMinnesotaNorth DakotaNebraskaNew HampshireIdahoFloridaWashingtonVermontBottom 10 states in 2026 rankings<\/p>\n

Kentucky (41), Ohio (42), Alabama (43), West Virginia (44), Arkansas (45), Michigan (46), New Mexico (47), Mississippi (48), Alaska (49) and Louisiana (50).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Utah earns best state ranking for the fourth year in a row.\u00a0Utah\u2019s continued success is due to uniquely…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":788993,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,5817,8793,79],"class_list":["post-788992","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-news-division","tag-news-feed-national","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=788992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/788993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=788992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=788992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=788992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}