For the second year in a row, U.S. News & World Report has placed Louisiana at the bottom in their rankings of states. In the report, Louisiana’s total rank of 50th was a result of ranking 45th in health care, 48th in education, 49th in the economy, 48th in infrastructure, 50th in opportunity, 43rd in fiscal stability, 50th in crime and corrections, and in 50th in natural environment.

Washington state ranked first followed by New Hampshire, Minnesota, Utah, and then Vermont.
At the bottom of the list rankings slightly higher than Louisiana, was Alabama at 49th, Mississippi at 48th, West Virginia at 47th, and New Mexico at 46th.

In a press release on May 14 governor Edwards said, “Unfortunately, this ranking doesn’t accurately reflect the progress Louisiana has made in recent years and how much better we are doing today, given the gains that we have made in many critical areas that directly impact people’s lives.

“Louisianans know how much better we’re doing now than when we were facing down a $2 billion dollar deficit just a few years back. By working together across party lines, we’ve stabilized our budget, turned deficits into a surplus, are investing more in education at all levels and focusing on our infrastructure for the first time in years. We have improved our health care by extending coverage to thousands of working adults, we no longer have the highest prison population in the country, and higher education funding is fully stable.

“It takes time for improvement to show up in data, and some of the U.S. News and World Report’s data sources are several years old, which is frustrating. But we know we’re doing far better than we were years ago and we fully expect that will show up in future rankings.”