New Jersey named top state to raise a family

For the second year in a row, New Jersey has been named the top state in which to raise a family. The report is from Money Rates and measured things like academic performance, cost of college, crime rates, daycare options, overall health, quantity/quality of open spaces, broadband infrastructure, and student checking accounts (it is a money website, after all).

According to the site, “New Jersey is deemed the best state to raise a family because it ranked in the top ten for six of nine categories: academic performance (as determined by the National Assessment of Educational Progress), access to youth checking accounts, safety from violent crime, availability of daycare, child health and access to broadband. It just missed the top ten in the neighborhood amenities category.

The only drawback is cost of living, as New Jersey was one of the ten most expensive states for overall costs and public college tuition.

New Jersey ranked 42nd in overall affordability and 46th in college affordability (based on in-state tuition at a public school), but everywhere else, we did pretty well. We’re third in academic performance, fifth in safety from violent crime, eighth in daycare availability, fourth in childhood health, eleventh in neighborhood amenities (like parks, sidewalks, and libraries), and eighth in broadband infrastructure.

The rest of the top ten: Massachusetts (first in academic performance) and Utah tied for second, followed by Connecticut, New Hampshire, Wyoming, Florida, Wisconsin, Ohio, and New York. Alabama comes in 50th, with Louisiana at 49.