1. Massachusetts
2. Connecticut
3. New Hampshire
4. Minnesota
5. New Jersey
6. Colorado
7. Vermont
8. Maryland
9. Hawaii
10. Virginia
11. Washington
12. Utah
13. New York
14. North Dakota
15. California
Based on social and economic conditions, including measures of educational attainment, poverty, and health, Massachusetts is the nation’s best state in which to live. More than two out of every five adults have at least a bachelor’s degree, by far the highest proportion of any state. Because a college degree tends to open economic opportunities, the high level of education across the state’s population helps lower the incidence of poverty. With a poverty rate of 11.5%, poverty is considerably less common in Massachusetts than it is across the nation.
It should be noted that Massachusetts had two very good Republican governors recently in Bill Weld and Mitt Romney. Their effectiveness didn't lie in their party affiliation, but rather their pragmatism. Here, at least, partisanship feels relatively unrelated to prosperity.
