COMMUNITY

Study: New Mexico dead last for best place to raise a family

Not weighed in the study were advantages of raising a family away from big cities where there is plenty of fresh air, hiking, biking, hunting, fishing and a sense of community.

From Staff Reports

Officials with the personal-finance website WalletHub this week released a report on 2019's "Best and Worst States to Raise a Family."

New Mexico dropped to the bottom of the rankings as the worst state overall. The study cited low median family salary, violent crime and .the number of families in poverty. Joining New Mexico in the lowest five rankings were Mississippi, Louisiana, West Virginia and Alabama.

What the study doesn't reflect are the advantages of raising a family in a place like Ruidoso, away from a big city with plenty of fresh air and wildlife, along with  hiking, biking, fishing and hunting. And how about the views.

Topping the pack were Minnesota, Massachusetts, North Dakota, Vermont and New Hampshire.

Raising a healthy, stable family sometimes requires moving to a new state. And the reasons for moving are often similar: career transitions, better schools, financial challenges or a general desire to change settings.

But wants and needs don’t always align in a particular state. For instance, a state might offer a low income-tax rate, but have a subpar education system. However, families do not need to make these kinds of tradeoffs. They can avoid such problems by knowing which states offer the best combination of qualities that matter most to parents and their kids.

To help with the evaluation process, WalletHub compared the 50 states across 49 key indicators of family-friendliness. The data set ranges from median family salary to housing affordability to unemployment rate.

With 1 being best and 25 being average, New Mexico was ranked 29th for percentage of families with young children; 34th for child care costs adjusted for median family income; 30th for infant mortality rate; 47th for median family salary adjusted for cost of living; 48th for violent-crime rate; 49th for percentage of families in poverty; 34th for hosing affordability; 49th for unemployment rate and  46th for separation and divorce rate.

For the full report,  visit:
https://wallethub.com/edu/best-states-to-raise-a-family/31065/ 

Minnesota was the state with the highest median family salary and New York the state with the lowest. Iowa had the most affordable housing amd California the least affordable. Lowest child care costs were found in Mississippi and the Nebraska with the highest costs. Vermont posted the lowest infant mortality rate and Alabama the highest. Maine had the fewest violent crimes per capita and Alaska tied with New Mexico and Tennessee. New Hampshire had the lowest percentage of families in poverty and Mississippi had the highest.