By David Rasbach
The Bellingham Herald
A study released by governing.com earlier this year found that people are moving to Washington state at such a rate that a number of counties actually have fewer native Washingtonians than adults who born elsewhere and moved to the Evergreen State.
Whatcom County is one of those, the study said, with only 40.5% of its residents actually born in Washington. Pierce (39.9%) and Thurston (37.6%) counties also have more transplants from other states.
An annual Best States ranking published recently by U.S. News and World Report may lend some insight into exactly why — turns out Washington isn’t just good, it’s the best.
And U.S. News and World Report says Washington wasn’t just best in health care or education or economy or natural environment — these rankings take everything into account.
“Some states shine in health care. Some soar in education. Some excel in both — or in much more,” the story about the rankings stated. “The Best States ranking of U.S. states draws on thousands of data points to measure how well states are performing for their citizens.”
In all, eight categories were examined and weighed, with health care and education receiving the most weight, followed by economy, infrastructure, opportunity, fiscal stability, crime/corrections and natural environment.
In Washington’s case, the categories receiving the most weight is where the state ranked highest — it was graded fourth best in health care and education, third in economy and second in infrastructure.
But the state also ranked in the top half of the 50 states in each category, checking in at 19th in opportunity, 22nd in fiscal stability, 15th in crime and corrections and 14th in natural environment.
New Hampshire, which was top ranked in opportunity and crime and corrections, was second overall to Washington, with Minnesota, Utah and Vermont wrapping up the top five.
Iowa, which topped the rankings in 2018, dropped to 14th, while Massachusetts, which was tops in 2017, was eighth this year.
Washington earned the top spot in 2019 after being ranked fifth in 2017 and sixth in 2018.
The region of the United States to avoid, according to this year’s rankings, is the deep south, where Mississippi ranked 48th, Alabama 49th and Louisiana 50th.
