Louisiana Named Worst State in America (No, They’re Seriously Claiming This)

The folks at U.S. News & World Report have released their annual rankings of the "best states" and Louisiana is ranked dead last.

Y'all can't be serious? (Okay, well, we guess if you do a ranking, there has to be a last place.)

Equally as sad, is that Louisiana came in #50 in last year's ranking as well.

On the flip side, for the second straight year, Utah is ranked #1.

How are the rankings comprised?

U.S. News uses thousands of data points to measure how well states are performing for their citizens.

Everything from education and health care to infrastructure and the economy is used to come up with the list. However, some categories hold more weight than others, based on a survey of what matters most to people.

Healthcare and education were the areas weighted most heavily.

After that, it was state economies, infrastructure, and the opportunity states offer their citizens. Fiscal stability was closely behind in weighting, followed by measures of crime and corrections and a state's natural environment.

Louisiana's Scorecard

What exactly did the Bayou State rank in some of the key metrics?

Below is a breakdown of some of those poor rankings:

• Crime & Corrections - #50
• Economy - #49
• Infrastructure - #49
• Natural Environment - #49
• Education - #47
• Health Care- #46
• Opportunity - #44
• Fiscal Stability - #41

To view the complete ranking details for Louisiana, click here.

And to see the entire "best states" ranking, go here.