State Rankings

The overall state rankings are based on 83 measures across five categories of health: Social and Economic Factors, Physical Environment, Behaviors, Clinical Care and Health Outcomes. Additional information can be found on the America’s Health Rankings Methodology page.

Massachusetts was the healthiest state in this year’s report, ranking No. 1 in both women’s and children’s health as well as ranking No. 1 overall for the second consecutive year. Massachusetts also ranked among the top five in nearly every category: No. 1 in Social and Economic Factors, No. 2 in Clinical Care, No. 3 in Health Outcomes and No. 4 in Behaviors. It ranked No. 13 in Physical Environment.

Rounding out the top five healthiest states in this report are Vermont (No. 2), New Hampshire (No. 3), Minnesota (No. 4) and Connecticut (No. 5).

Louisiana was the least healthy state in this year’s report, ranking No. 50 overall for the second consecutive year. It ranked No. 50 for women as well and No. 49 for children. Louisiana ranked in the bottom two states in nearly every category: No. 49 in Social and Economic Factors, No. 50 in Physical Environment, No. 49 in Behaviors and No. 50 in Health Outcomes. In Clinical Care, Louisiana ranked No. 29.

Arkansas (No. 49), Mississippi (No. 48), Oklahoma (No. 47) and West Virginia (No. 46) completed the five least healthy states.

The graph above displays state scores and ranks, with the least healthy states on the left and the healthiest on the right. The distance between bars shows the difference between state scores. For example, while Oklahoma (No. 47) and Mississippi (No. 48) are adjacent in the rankings, there is a sizable difference in their overall scores. This indicates that Mississippi would need to show significant improvement across multiple measures to move up in the rankings. There is also a large gap in score between Nevada (No. 42) and Alabama (No. 43).

To further explore state-level data, see Explore Data. The website features downloadable State Summaries for each state and the District of Columbia. Each summary describes state-specific strengths, challenges, key findings and rankings for individual measures, allowing users to identify which measures positively or negatively influenced each state’s overall rank. This can be visualized by selecting a state in the Explore Data section. Disparity ratios, which show the relative difference between two groups within a demographic, are available for select measures in the website’s State Summaries. The website also features an Adjust My Rank tool that allows users to explore how progress and challenges across key measures can impact a state’s overall rank.

Since the publication of the first America’s Health Rankings Health of Women and Children Report in 2016, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Minnesota and Connecticut have consistently remained in the top 10 healthiest states, while Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi and Oklahoma have consistently ranked among the 10 least healthy states. 

Three states improved more than 10 places between 2016 and 2026:

Eight additional states improved in rank by at least five places:

On the other hand, three states worsened 10 or more places between 2016 and 2026:

The ranks of six additional states worsened five or more places between 2016 and 2026:

Note: This report presents these long-term comparisons, noting that the underlying measures and methodologies have evolved over the last decade. The model methodology changed starting with the 2020 edition, rankings were not published in the 2020 and 2021 editions, and children's rankings did not include infant measures prior to 2020.