Texas finishes 30th in ranking of most family-friendly states

Jan 19, 2022

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Texas ranked in the bottom half of the 50 states in a new WalletHub study that examines how family-friendly the states are based on criteria such as school quality, housing affordability and income tax rates.

The Lone Star State scored 46.42 out of 100 in the ranking, putting Texas in 30th place in the study. In comparison, No. 1 Massachusetts scored 65.21 in the analysis that compared states over five dimensions: Family fun, health and safety, quality of schools and child care, living affordability and socio-economic issues such as divorce rates.

Texas ranked fifth in the family fun category, 47th for health and safety, 30th in education and child care, 44th in affordability and 44th in socio-economics.

In addition, Texas had the second highest share of families with young children among the states.

The study’s authors say the ranking aims to provide readers with a comprehensive measure of how states are doing in addressing those concerns deemed most important to parents and their children.

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Best and Worst States to Raise a Family

Overall Rank	State	Total Score	Family Fun	Health & Safety	Education & Child Care	Affordability	Socio-economics
1	Massachusetts	65.21	9	3	2	2	24
2	New York	61.81	2	8	5	6	46
3	Vermont	59.15	44	1	4	30	1
4	Minnesota	58.79	13	9	22	9	7
5	Nebraska	58.49	17	10	12	14	4
6	New Hampshire	58.38	34	2	9	24	5
7	Connecticut	57.67	29	7	7	1	38
8	Washington	57.58	8	18	26	3	16
9	North Dakota	57.57	31	17	3	15	2
10	New Jersey	57.01	21	14	1	4	41
11	Rhode Island	55.72	28	5	17	5	32
12	Iowa	55.58	32	13	11	7	10
13	Utah	54.98	16	19	15	38	3
14	Wisconsin	54.47	20	23	16	19	11
15	South Dakota	54.39	30	12	13	27	8
16	Illinois	54.06	3	31	21	22	43
17	Maine	53.73	46	4	6	33	14
18	Virginia	53.16	27	11	14	13	17
19	Colorado	53.16	7	29	28	18	18
20	Maryland	52.72	23	15	10	10	30
21	Pennsylvania	51.59	12	27	25	8	27
22	Montana	51.53	39	20	8	43	6
23	Hawaii	51.32	15	6	27	40	21
24	California	51.18	1	32	46	20	42
25	Oregon	50.79	10	24	35	11	20
26	Wyoming	49.76	33	16	19	39	13
27	Kansas	49.3	37	35	23	16	12
28	Missouri	49.12	24	34	20	26	15
29	Delaware	46.63	40	26	18	25	37
30	Texas	46.42	5	47	30	44	44
31	Ohio	45.07	19	30	38	23	40
32	Alaska	45.06	14	33	40	28	23
33	Indiana	44.75	36	37	33	21	19
34	Idaho	44.46	38	21	45	47	9
35	Michigan	44.41	43	25	34	12	39
36	Tennessee	43.85	22	40	32	34	25
37	North Carolina	43.7	26	39	29	37	26
38	Kentucky	43.19	45	28	24	35	33
39	Florida	43.12	6	38	31	50	45
40	Arizona	40.39	11	36	47	48	29
41	Georgia	39.83	25	46	39	42	35
42	Nevada	38.96	4	45	49	49	49
43	Alabama	38.34	47	44	41	17	31
44	Arkansas	37.91	48	43	36	29	28
45	West Virginia	37.69	50	22	43	41	22
46	Oklahoma	37.19	41	48	44	36	34
47	South Carolina	37.09	42	41	42	46	36
48	Louisiana	34.66	18	49	48	31	50
49	New Mexico	30.79	35	42	50	45	48
50	Mississippi	30.47	49	50	37	32	47