Illinois slips in U.S. News Best States rankings
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Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios
It's another tough year for Illinois in U.S. News & World Report's annual state rankings.
- We actually got worse from last year.
The big picture: Illinois ranks 37th in the list of "Best States," which compiles its rankings based on categories such as education, economy, natural environment and crime.
By the numbers: We did best in education, coming in at 13th on the list, and worst at natural environment — that was 45th.
- Perhaps to the surprise of President Trump and Republicans who deride Chicago as a cesspool of crime, Illinois came in 15th in the crime and corrections category.
- The state ranks relatively low for incarceration rates and falls in the top 20 for low violent crime rates.
Zoom out: Our Midwestern neighbors beat us in overall rankings, with Wisconsin (15th) and Iowa (12th) doing the best.
- Even Indiana comes in higher at 30th, as if we needed any more reason to beef with them.
The Methodology: U.S. News & World Report assesses the performance of the 50 U.S. states using 71 metrics across eight categories.
- Each of the eight categories was assigned weights based on the average of three years of data from recent national surveys that asked tens of thousands of people to prioritize various issue areas in their state.
- U.S. News collected data from over two dozen sources to calculate 71 state-level metrics across eight categories.
Go deeper: U.S. News' methodology.
The bottom line: We don't care what they say. We like us. We really, really like us.