Delaware lands in top 15 of U.S. News Best States rankings

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Delaware lands in top 15 of U.S. News Best States rankings

Greta CrossLauren Lingle
July 31, 2026, 4:31 a.m. ET

Delaware is one of the nation’s top-performing states, according to a new U.S. News & World Report analysis that ranked the First State No. 14 overall in its 2026 Best States rankings

The annual report evaluated all 50 states across eight categories, including education, health care, economy, infrastructure, opportunity, fiscal stability, natural environment, and crime and corrections

Delaware finished ahead of neighboring Maryland (No. 21), Pennsylvania (No. 40) and New Jersey (No. 20). Utah claimed the No. 1 overall spot, while Louisiana ranked last

Where Delaware ranked in each category:

• Education: No. 37
• Health care: No. 13
• Economy: No. 16
• Infrastructure: No. 13
• Opportunity: No. 10
• Fiscal stability: No. 4
• Natural environment: No. 36
• Crime and corrections: No. 28

National context

This year, the top five states were Utah, South Dakota, Minnesota, North Dakota and Nebraska. At the bottom of the rankings were Arkansas, Michigan, New Mexico, Mississippi, Alaska and Louisiana

What is the No. 1 ranked state?

U.S. News ranked Utah as the best overall state. The state ranked No. 2 for economy and fiscal stability, No. 4 for infrastructure, No. 6 for education, No. 7 for crime and corrections, No. 18 for health care, No. 24 for opportunity and No. 48 for natural environment

How are each of the 50 states rated?

Here’s a closer look at how U.S. News & World Report ranked each of the 50 states:

1. Utah
2. South Dakota
3. Minnesota
4. North Dakota
5. Nebraska
6. New Hampshire
7. Idaho
8. Florida
9. Washington
10. Vermont
11. Massachusetts
12. Iowa
13. North Carolina
14. Delaware
15. Wisconsin
16. Wyoming
17. Colorado
18. Connecticut
19. Virginia
20. New Jersey
21. Maryland
22. Georgia
23. New York
24. Kansas
25. Tennessee
26. Texas
27. Maine
28. Hawaii
29. Montana
30. Indiana
31. Missouri
32. South Carolina
33. Rhode Island
34. Arizona
35. California
36. Oklahoma
37. Illinois
38. Nevada
39. Oregon
40. Pennsylvania
41. Kentucky
42. Ohio
43. Alabama
44. West Virgina
45. Arkansas
46. Michigan
47. New Mexico
48. Mississippi
49. Alaska
50. Louisiana

How were the rankings determined?

To determine the rankings, U.S. News analyzed 71 metrics across eight categories: Education, health care, economy, infrastructure, opportunity, fiscal stability, natural environment, and crime and corrections. Some categories were weighted more than others. For example, health care and education were weighted more heavily than crime and corrections and natural environment

Within each category, states received a score from 0 to 100, with the highest-performing state earning 100 points and the lowest receiving zero

In addition to those metrics, U.S. News surveyed more than 56,000 people nationwide between 2018 and 2025 about how satisfied they were with their state’s performance across the eight categories

Categories used in the rankings

• Education: College graduation rates, educational attainment, college affordability and debt, preschool enrollment, college readiness, high school graduation rates and math and reading scores.
• Health care: Insurance coverage, wellness and dental visits, affordability, preventable hospital admission rates, Medicare quality, hospital and nursing home quality, mortality rates, obesity and smoking rates, mental health and suicide rates.
• Economy: Business creation, top company headquarters, patent creation rate, low tax burden, venture capital invested, job growth, labor force participation, low unemployment rate, net migration, GDP growth and young population growth
• Infrastructure: Electricity prices, power grid reliability, renewable energy usage, internet subscription rate and access to gigabit internet, bridge and road qualities, commute times and public transit usage
• Opportunity: Cost of living, housing affordability, low food insecurity and poverty rate, income dispersion, household income, and education, unemployment and labor force participation gap by race, gender, disability status
• Fiscal stability: <a href="https://todaytrendnews7.com/us-government-mislabels-countries-on-map-of-africa-at-global-conference/” title=”US government mislabels countries on map of Africa at global conference”>Government credit rating, pension fund liability, liquidity, budget balancing
• Natural environment: Drinking water and air qualities, low industrial toxins, low pollution health risk
• Crime and corrections: Jailing equality, low juvenile incarceration, low incarceration rate, low property and violent crime rates

Greta Cross is a national trending reporter at USA TODAY. Story idea? Email her at gcross@usatoday.com.Lauren Lingle is an intern with Delaware Online/The News Journal. Contact her at @llingle@gannett.com