US News ranks Oregon 39th, see why 2%
By Greta Cross2% Bayla Orton2%
7/30/2026, 4:02:39 AM
Topics: State Rankings, Oregon
BS Summary: This article contains 10 faulty reasoning types, including Halo Effect, Confirmation Bias, and Appeal to Authority, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 7.6% saturation with 85 hits. Analysis detected 257 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,113 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 9.1% and a BS Rank of 2% (24,770 of 25,284 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 98.00% of the article peer group.
A new study ranking all 50 states from best to worst placed Oregon toward the bottom.
US News's 2026 Overall Best State Rankings examined 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 than crime and corrections and natural environment.
Within the categories, each state was given points out of 100, with the best state given 100 points and the worst given zero.
Oregon ranked No. 39 overall, with its lowest scores being in crime and corrections, the economy and education.
This year, the states among the top five best are Utah, South Dakota, Minnesota, North Dakota and Nebraska.
As for the bottom of the barrel, Arkansas, Michigan, New Mexico, Mississippi, Alaska and Louisiana ranked the lowest.
Here's a closer look at the rankings.
A new US News study ranked Oregon as the 39th best state to live in overall.
Oregon's lowest rankings were in the economy, crime and corrections, and natural environment categories.
The state's best category was infrastructure, where it ranked second in the nation.
The state was ranked No. 48 in the economy category, measured through employment, growth and business environment attributes.
Oregon increased in population by 0.3%, however the average increase across all states was 0.6%.
Job availability across the state grew 0.4%, while the national average grew 0.9%.
Oregon was ranked No. 46 in the crime and corrections category, which is evaluated by public safety and corrections outcomes.
Although Oregon's violent crime rate and incarceration rate is lower than the national average, juvenile incarceration is much higher.
Oregon averages 122 per every 100,000 residents, where the nation averages 46 incarcerated juveniles.
Surprisingly, one of Oregon's lowest ranking categories was natural environment at No.
44.
The state had 5.81 drinking water violation points per 1,000 residents.
The national average was just 2.29.
Oregon ranked far better than the national average in industrial toxins and days with unhealthy air quality.
Oregon's education ranked No. 39 across all states.
Although students graduate with lower than average debt by $2,000, the state's math scores were 6 points behind the national average and almost 4% fewer Oregonians graduate high school than the rest of the U.S.
In opportunity, assessed by affordability, economic opportunity and equality, Oregon ranked No.
28.
The state's cost of living index is 3.4 higher than the national average, but the median household income was also higher and its poverty rate was lower.
The state ranked No. 25 in healthcare with an obesity rate of 33.7%, 0.3 less than the national average.
Oregon has a fewer people without health insurance, 7.6% compared to the national average of 11.3%.
Additionally, the state only had 1,902 preventable hospital admissions out of every 100,000 Medicare patients, while the U.S. average was 2,726.
Oregon's second highest category was fiscal stability.
The state ranked No. 24 overall, and ranked No. 24 in short-term fiscal stability and No. 21 in long-term fiscal stability.
Oregon's best category was infrastructure with a No. 2 ranking.
The state uses 26.9% renewable energy, whereas nationally the average is 8.8%.
Nationally, the average commute time is 27.2 minutes and Oregon's is shorter at 23.2 minutes.
Oregon has better road conditions than the U.S. average with 9.3% of roads in poor condition compared to the nation's 18.9%.
US 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.
Louisiana ranked No.
50.
The state ranked No. 43 for fiscal stability, No. 45 for health care and opportunity, No. 46 for infrastructure and education, No. 49 for economy and natural environment and No. 50 for crime and corrections.
How are each of the 50 states rated?
Here's a closer look at how US News ranked each of the 50 states:
Utah
South Dakota
Minnesota
North Dakota
Nebraska
New Hampshire
Idaho
Florida
Washington
Vermont
Massachusetts
Iowa
North Carolina
Delaware
Wisconsin
Wyoming
Colorado
Connecticut
Virginia
New Jersey
Maryland
Georgia
New York
Kansas
Tennessee
Texas
Maine
Hawaii
Montana
Indiana
Missouri
South Carolina
Rhode Island
Arizona
California
Oklahoma
Illinois
Nevada
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Kentucky
Ohio
Alabama
West Virgina
Arkansas
Michigan
New Mexico
Mississippi
Alaska
Louisiana
How were the rankings determined?
To determine the rankings, US 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 than crime and corrections and natural environment.
Within the categories, each state was given points out of 100, with the best state given 100 points and the worst given zero.
In addition to these point-based ratings, US News surveyed people across the country on how satisfied they were with their state's performance in the categories.
Between 2018 and 2025, US News surveyed more than 56,000 people across the United States.
Here's a closer look at how the categories were analyzed:
Education: 2-year and 4-year college graduation rates, educational attainment, low college debt, low college tuition and fees, college readiness, high school graduation rate, National Assessment of Educational Progress math and reading scores and preschool enrollment
Health care: Health insurance enrollment, child wellness and dental visits, adult wellness and dental visits, health care affordability, low preventable hospital admission rates, Medicare quality, nursing home and hospital qualities, low infant mortality rate, low mortality rate, low obesity and smoking rates, mental health and low suicide rate
Economy: Business creation rate, top company headquarters, patent creation rate, low tax burden, venture capital invested, job growth, labor force participation, low unemployment rate, net migration, Gross Domestic Product 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: 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.
Bayla Orton contributed to this story.
She is a Snowden intern at The Register-Guard.
Reach her at BOrton@usatodayco.com.
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