Second on the list was Massachusetts, followed by New York. New Mexico came in last. “New Mexico has the fifth lowest median annual household income—under $50,000, high unemployment, and the economic confidence index is very low,” says Gonzalez. “As a result, over 19% of the state's residents are living in poverty, the debt to earnings ratio is over 63%, the population and income growth are very low, and there is a large wealth gap.
Other things that dragged down New Mexico in the rankings: The state lacks in the quality of the public-school system, which leads to the lowest high school graduation rate in the country—75.1%, and only about 85% of the population having at least a high school diploma. In terms of health, the state has a high premature death rate, a large percentage of adults in poor health, and a large share of births with low birthweight—over 9%.
And as if it couldn’t get any worse: “Although it lands in the middle of the pack for quality of life, New Mexico is still not a very bicycle friendly state, and its roads could use some improvement,” says Gonzalez. “There are also very few restaurants, bars, performing arts centers and fitness centers per capita. Lastly, the state has a high crime rate and the third largest number of traffic related fatalities.
In its report, WalletHub also ranked the most affordable states to live in America. At the top of the list was Alabama, followed by West Virginia and Arkansas. Not surprisingly, California came in last as the most expensive state in America. Want to drill down even further? The Council for Community and Economic Research recently ranked the 10 most affordable cities in the U.S. using its annual. Since 1968, C2ER has been collecting and publishing this cost of living index data at the local level in order to help people compare cities across the country. And a note that the top-ranking affordable places to live on the C2ER list aren’t just cheap: They also have a low income to-expense ratio.
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