Finest states to stay in 2026: No. 1 wins once more

One of many many indicators that the Covid pandemic is slipping additional into the previous is that firms are paying nearer consideration to the standard of life in places the place they’re contemplating establishing store. 

“The place are individuals shifting? The place have they gone post-Covid?” mentioned veteran website choice advisor Tom Stringer of Stringer Website Choice in New York. “It is largely going to be a sexy place to stay. You are seeing company business chasing individuals now fairly than individuals chasing jobs.” 

So, it stands to purpose that of their campaigns to lure enterprise, states are more and more touting their high quality of life. In consequence, CNBC is giving extra weight to the High quality of Life class on this yr’s America’s Prime States for Enterprise examine. It’s our annual rating of each state’s enterprise local weather, now in its twentieth yr. Below this yr’s methodology, the class makes up 11.6% of a state’s total rating, up from about ten % final yr.  

To attain the states for high quality of life, we use arduous information on elements like crime charges, air high quality and healthcare. We additionally take into account the fee and availability of childcare, inclusiveness of state legal guidelines, and reproductive rights. Some states don’t make the grade on the subject of offering an excellent place for residents to stay and work. The next states are America’s finest locations to stay this yr. 

Nebraska 

Nebraska‘s Prescription Drug Monitoring Program, in place since 2017 to fight the opioid epidemic, is among the most intensive within the nation. It requires the reporting of each prescription within the state — not simply managed substances. Then-State Senator Sara Howard, who launched the laws, mentioned on the time, “My purpose is to make Nebraska one of many main states within the nation within the struggle in opposition to opioid dependancy and abuse.” She succeeded. No state had fewer drug deaths per capita in 2023, based on the United Well being Basis, simply 8.7 deaths per 100,000 individuals. It’s one purpose that the Cornhusker State is amongst America’s healthiest. It additionally helps that Nebraska has exceptionally clear air, based on information from the American Lung Affiliation and First Road Basis. 

2026 High quality of Life rating: 184 out of 290 factors (Prime States grade: B) 

Strengths: Well being, Air High quality 

Weaknesses: Reproductive Rights, Inclusiveness 

Massachusetts 

Massachusetts is America’s healthiest state, partially as a result of it has extra main care physicians per capita than some other state, based on the United Well being Basis. That will have one thing to do with the truth that no state has a smaller proportion of individuals with out medical health insurance, which consultants contend has every little thing to do with the historic healthcare reform championed by then-Gov. Mitt Romney 20 years in the past. “Romneycare,” handed in 2006, mandated that each resident should have medical health insurance or pay a tax penalty, established a market the place they might purchase insurance coverage, and created subsidies to make it reasonably priced. The United Well being Basis notes that as of final yr, 53.4% of Bay State residents surveyed mentioned their well being was good or wonderful — second solely to Vermont. Massachusetts can also be a pacesetter in employee protections, mandating paid sick go away and defending the suitable to arrange.  

2026 High quality of Life rating: 184 out of 290 factors (Prime States grade: B) 

Strengths: Well being, Employee Protections, Inclusiveness, Reproductive Rights 

Weaknesses: Air High quality, Childcare 

North Dakota 

No state does higher than North Dakota on the subject of the supply of childcare at an affordable value. The Peace Backyard State has 478 licensed childcare facilities in a state of fewer than 800,000 individuals, based on Youngster Care Conscious of America. The typical price is simply 9% of the median revenue for a household with two working mother and father, or half the fee in Hawaii. Whether or not the state can proceed that document is an open query, nevertheless. State childcare help has in some methods been a sufferer of its personal success. Late final yr, going through price range pressures due partially to excessive enrollment, the state diminished a few of its subsidies. It additionally eradicated its Working Dad and mom Youngster Care Reduction program, which supplied matching funds for employer-led childcare. The ultimate matching funds will exit in August.  

2026 High quality of Life rating: 186 out of 290 factors (Prime States grade: B+) 

Strengths: Childcare, Well being, Air High quality, Crime 

Weaknesses: Employee Protections, Reproductive Rights 

Virginia

With simply 218 incidents per 100,000 residents in 2024, Virginia had one of many lowest violent crime charges within the nation, based on FBI statistics. Ceasefire Virginia, launched in 2022 beneath Gov. Glenn Youngkin and Legal professional Basic Jason Miyares, each Republicans — and persevering with beneath their Democratic successors, Abigail Spanberger and Jay Jones — targets gun violence in 13 municipalities within the Commonwealth with elevated penalties for possession and use of firearms by convicted felons. An evaluation of this system final yr by Virginia Commonwealth College’s Heart for Public Coverage credited it with a ten% lower in homicides statewide by 2024, together with a 24% discount in homicides in Ceasefire localities. 

2026 High quality of Life rating: 189 out of 290 factors (Prime States grade: B+) 

Strengths: Crime, Air High quality, Well being 

Weak point: Childcare 

New Hampshire 

“Stay Free or Die” is New Hampshire‘s well-known motto. And within the Granite State, the primary a part of that motto virtually all the time wins. A broad vary of residents stay free from discrimination beneath the state’s very inclusive statutes. (One exception, nevertheless, is its election legal guidelines. New Hampshire is one among solely three states— the others are Mississippi and Alabama — that don’t provide in-person early voting.) Violent crime is virtually non-existent, with simply 110 offenses per 100,000 residents in 2024. Maybe much more spectacular, the violent crime charge is down 44% since 2014. 

2026 High quality of Life rating: 189 out of 290 factors (Prime States grade: B+) 

Strengths: Crime, Childcare, Inclusiveness 

Weaknesses: Well being, Employee Protections 

Hawaii  

Hawaii spent a few years at or close to the highest of this record, with low crime, a pristine surroundings, and welcoming state legal guidelines. Then, in 2022, we started factoring in the fee and availability of childcare. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Basis calls it “greater than a household subject — it is an financial crucial.” The state has been attempting since 2023 to handle the necessity with its “Prepared Keiki” program (Keiki means youngster in Hawaiian). In October, the state celebrated the opening of the a centesimal pre-school classroom beneath this system, in Kailua. However the want continues to be monumental — and so is the fee, the best within the nation at 18% of median revenue, based on Youngster Care Conscious. 

2026 High quality of Life rating: 191 out of 290 factors (Prime States grade: B+) 

Strengths: Crime, Air High quality, Inclusiveness 

Weaknesses: Childcare, Well being 

Connecticut 

Like most of its New England neighbors, Connecticut is remarkably wholesome, and its residents observe wholesome habits. Illicit opioid use is the bottom of any state. The Nutmeg State even leads the nation within the proportion of adults who reported visiting a dentist previously yr, based on the United Well being Basis. The state has the nation’s third-lowest violent crime charge. Air high quality is poor, nevertheless, with excessive ranges of ozone, based on the American Lung Affiliation, and excessive ranges of particulate matter, based on the nonprofit First Road Basis. 

2026 High quality of Life rating: 205 out of 290 factors (Prime States grade: A–) 

Strengths: Crime, Well being, Employee Protections 

Weak point: Air High quality 

Minnesota 

Minnesota provides among the many nation’s strongest ensures of reproductive rights, based on evaluation by the Guttmacher Institute. Whereas there are few points extra divisive than abortion, the economics of it have gotten more and more clear-cut because the Supreme Court docket’s Dobbs choice returned the jurisdiction to the states in 2022. A 2025 examine by the Nationwide Bureau of Financial Analysis discovered abortion bans “improve internet migration outflows” and that “(t)he results are extra outstanding for single-person households than household households, which can mirror bigger results on youthful adults.”

The North Star State additionally provides robust protections in opposition to discrimination, and it earns a near-perfect rating from Oxfam America for its employee protections comparable to the suitable of staff to arrange. And the house of the Mayo Clinic is appropriately amongst America’s healthiest states. 

2026 High quality of Life rating: 210 out of 290 factors (Prime States grade: A) 

Strengths: Reproductive Rights, Inclusiveness, Well being 

Weak point: Childcare 

New Jersey

Sure, New Jersey. If the Backyard State shouldn’t be the primary place that involves thoughts when you concentrate on nice high quality of life, you aren’t trying carefully sufficient, based on the information. In accordance with the United Well being Basis, New Jersey has the second-lowest charge of untimely deaths after Massachusetts, serving to to make New Jersey one among America’s healthiest states. It ranks third nationally for wholesome lives, based on the Commonwealth Fund‘s 2025 Scorecard on State Well being System Efficiency. However like a lot else in New Jersey, the state’s well being system has critical affordability points. First-term Gov. Mikie Sherrill has proposed fining employers that don’t present medical health insurance for his or her staff, and he or she is in search of reform within the State Well being Advantages Program, which she says has been “pushed to the brink” of insolvency. 

2026 High quality of Life rating: 223 out of 290 factors (Prime States grade: A+) 

Strengths: Well being, Reproductive Rights, Employee Protections, Crime 

Weak point: Air High quality 

Maine 

Maine has America’s lowest violent crime charge, with simply 100 incidents per 100,000 individuals in 2024. After a horrific mass capturing spree in 2023 in Lewiston that left 18 individuals lifeless, Maine legislators handed a collection of reforms that earned the state “most improved” honors in 2024 from the Giffords Legislation Heart to Stop Gun Violence. The Pine Tree State’s legal guidelines provide a variety of protections in opposition to discrimination. However the state has some challenges on the subject of well being. Maine ranks No. 42 for drug deaths and No. 35 for frequent psychological misery, based on the United Well being Basis.  

2026 High quality of Life rating: 232 out of 290 factors (Prime States grade: A+) 

Strengths: Crime, Inclusiveness, Air High quality 

Weak point: Well being 

America’s Finest Place to Stay in 2026: Vermont 

Persons are feeling good in Vermont. Fifty-four % of Vermonters surveyed by the United Well being Basis in 2024 reported that they had been in good or wonderful well being — greater than in some other state. Crime is low, and, as is frequent all through the area, the Inexperienced Mountain State fiercely protects its residents’ rights. However one space the place the state falls badly brief is homelessness. Vermont ranks No. 47 for homelessness, based on the United Well being Basis. By the state’s most up-to-date rely, greater than 3,000 individuals had been unhoused as of January 2025, in a state with simply 644,000 individuals. So, in a uncommon second of settlement, Republican Gov. Phil Scott signed a invoice handed by the Democratic-led legislature to overtake the state’s system to handle the state of affairs. The invoice units apart some $83 million to ascertain a spread of shelter choices, with much less emphasis on unused resort rooms. The brand new legislation goals to ensure that in America’s prime state for high quality of life, extra individuals have a spot to stay. 

2026 High quality of Life rating: 233 out of 290 factors (Prime States grade: A+) 

Strengths: Reproductive Rights, Well being, Crime, Inclusiveness, Air High quality 

Weak point: Childcare