We’re not quite Colorado, but way better than Oklahoma, says U.S. News ranking

Kansas is a land of opportunity, but our economy remains mired in the bottom 10 among the 50 states, according to a new ranking from U.S. News and World Report.

The Sunflower State was 29th overall in the 2018 “Best States” ranking, released Tuesday by the news organization.

U.S. News is best known for its annual rankings of universities and colleges. In recent years, it has branched out to rank states, mutual funds, cars and hospitals.

Kansas’ best score in the state rankings, 12th in the nation, was in the category of “opportunity.” That takes into account measures such as equality and affordability. We did especially well on affordability – 7th in the nation – not so good at equality, 40th.

Our worst performance was for the overall economy, where we ranked 42nd among the 50 states. That measures the business environment, employment statistics and growth.

The data analysis ranked states in eight categories: health care, education, economy, opportunity, infrastructure, crime/corrections, government fiscal stability and quality of life.

Each category is weighted in the overall score based on surveys of what people cited as the most important factors in judging a state.

Health care and education got the highest weighting, while fiscal stability and quality of life had the least impact on the overall rankings.

The study found Kansas quality of life and infrastructure are pretty decent. The state came in 16th in the nation in both those categories.

A strong performance by the universities propelled the state to an overall 21st in the nation for education.

Within that ranking, higher education was 15th in the nation, with pre-K-to-12th-grade coming in about average, 27th among states.

The state struggled on health care, 30th in the nation and down from No. 23 last year.

In crime and corrections, we were 37th, and in fiscal stability, 39th.

In the overall ranking, Kansas’ 29th place was just barely good enough to best neighboring Missouri, which came in 30th.

Kansas also beat Oklahoma, by a country mile.

The Sooner State clocked in at 43rd overall in the union, dragged down by a No. 48 ranking for health care.

The other two states touching Kansas – Nebraska and Colorado – both cracked the top 10.

Nebraska placed seventh and Colorado, 10th.

Colorado had the best economy in the nation. That offset some issues with financial stability, 31st, and crime/corrections, 29th.

Nebraskans didn’t do anything exceptionally well – their best rankings were nines in education and infrastructure. But they were above average in every category.

Iowa was the nation’s best state, showing in the top 10 in five of the eight metrics.

Louisiana was the worst, bottom 10 in every measure.

This story was originally published February 27, 2018 at 7:29 AM with the headline "We’re not quite Colorado, but way better than Oklahoma, says U.S. News ranking."