Illinois Did Better Than Expected In Recent State Rankings

Illinois residents seem to always have something to complain about in their state. Some think we'd be dead last but that's not the case. According to thecentersquare.com, State rankings are now in from U.S. News. This list takes us from the worst to the best. The study was based on several different factors such as healthcare, education, economy, infrastructure, opportunity, fiscal stability, crime and natural environment. Some of the data came from the government and some came from private sources.

The top ten states that serve their citizens are: 1. Washington,2. New Hampshire, 3.Minnesota, 4. Utah, 5. Vermont, 6. Maryland, 7. Virginia, 8. Massachusetts, 9. Nebraska and rounding out the top ten was Colorado. We are just a little further down the list. Illinois came in 35th in the state rankings. Just like every other state, we have some areas that really need work so we can move up the list.

When it comes to education, we were ranked at 19, which really isn't bad. On the other hand, we did horribly on the fiscal stability portion, which had us in dead last. Now there wasn't a column for taxes paid, but we all know where we're at on that list.