Iowa is the best state to live in America, according to a new analysis released Tuesday by U.S. News & World Report.
U.S. News & World Report is known for its annual rankings of the country's best colleges, but now it has broadened its focus from helping people decide where to go to school to where they should move their families.
U.S. News used a complex formula to calculate the rankings, which took into account data from eight categories: health care, education, economy, opportunity, infrastructure, crime, fiscal stability, and quality of life
Those categories were broken down into a total of 77 metrics, such as income gap by race (in the opportunity category) and toxic pollution per square mile (in the quality of life category).
Iowa led the nation in four of those metrics: child wellness visits, high school graduation rate, "ultra-fast" internet access, and government credit rating score.
The findings of the U.S. News analysis are, however, not always consistent with reports conducted by other organizations. For example, even though Iowa ranked #1 in infrastructure, the state also ranked #1 in the number of structurally deficient bridges, in an analysis conducted by the American Road and Transportation Builders Association.
U.S. News ranked Illinois #35 on its list of best states. Illinois was also ranked the worst state for fiscal stability and the worst state for the natural environment.