New Survey Says Texas Ranks Low In The Best State States In The U.S.

Wow, this is shocking news.

The Study

In a U.S. News and World Report study, Texas really tanks it. It would be easy to sit back and just say, "No, padnuh", but that would be ignoring some very strong metrics that the study looked into. The main categories were Health Care, Education, Economy, Infrastructure, Opportunity, Fiscal Stability, Crime & Corrections, and Natural Environment. Those categories were made up of sub-categories, with the results weighed to come up with the winners and losers.

The Top 10

Utah came at #1 in the U.S. and interestingly enough, there weren't that many geographical clusters, meaning this wasn't a West, Midwest, South or east coast kind of thing at all. The results just showed pockets of greatness that on the surface look pretty random.

Texas is #29

29th doesn't seem all that bad, unless you remember, it's 29th out of 50. That puts us in the bottom half of the survey. So where did Texas come up short? Texas blew it in Crime & Corrections, Opportunity, Healthcare, Education, and Natural Environment. Scores were much better in Economy, Fiscal Stability, and Infrastructure. I am personally very intrigued by the fact that our economy is doing so well, yet opportunity is terrible (#48!).

How Do You Feel About It?

It's very easy to look at your home and say this is home, it looks like home, it feels like home, and all my friends are here, so it must be the greatest place in the world. The reality is that surveys like this point to the places where we are falling short and need to do some work. The results in healthcare (#31) and education (#29) are especially embarrassing. Or, if you prefer and think that Texas is the greatest place in the world, imagine it even better.