The Best and Worst States for Millennials
May 24, 2022
Millennials – the country’s largest and, arguably, most polarizing generation of people – thrive the most in states such as Washington, Massachusetts and Utah, according to a new analysis by WalletHub, a personal finance website.
Washington and Washington, D.C., are places where the generation of Americans thrive the most, according to WalletHub.
Millennials – the country’s largest and, arguably, most polarizing generation of people – thrive the most in states such as Washington, Massachusetts and Utah, according to a new analysis by WalletHub, a personal finance website.
Washington took the No. 1 overall spot, while its name twin on the opposite coast – Washington, D.C. – ranks second. To determine the rankings, analysts graded with a 100-point scale all 50 states and the district on a variety of metrics within five categories, such as affordability, quality of life and civic engagement. Data was pulled from several government agencies and other organizations, such as TransUnion and the Millennial Action Project.
America’s largest generation – which encompasses anyone born between 1981 and 1996, according to the Pew Research Center – also succeeds in Midwestern and other Western states, with Illinois, Minnesota, Oregon and Wisconsin ranking in the top 10. Virginia and Colorado rank No. 9 and 10, respectively. The top overall states perform the best in two categories: education and health, and quality of life.
WalletHub notes that while millennials are responsible for 21% of all consumer discretionary spending in the country, they are also economically worse off than their parents. Some of the states that rank the highest for economic health for millennials include Idaho, Arizona and New Hampshire.
Millennials have the highest homeownership rates in Utah and Iowa. They see the lowest rates of depression in Hawaii and Illinois. And the states that have the lowest percentage of the generation that live with their parents are North Dakota and South Dakota, while Washington, D.C. ranks high for that metric as well.
Millennials do well in all regions of the country, but Southern states generally rank lower on WalletHub’s list. Mississippi ranks the lowest overall due to its poor performance in the quality of life and economic health categories. West Virginia, New Mexico, Arkansas and Louisiana round out the bottom of the list.
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