CT Ranked Among Best States to Raise a Family; #7 in the Nation

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Raising a healthy, stable family sometimes requires moving to a new state. The reasons people choose to move are often similar: career transitions, better schools, financial challenges or a general desire to change settings. Recently, as COVID-19 descended on us all, concerns such as how well the state is handling the COVID-19 pandemic became part of the equation.  And many re-evaluated past choices of where to live in a new context and with new perspectives.

A new analysis is the backdrop for the latest “Best States to Raise a Family,” which has ranked Connecticut as 7th in the nation. The financial services website WalletHub compared the 50 states across five key dimensions: 1) Family Fun, 2) Health & Safety, 3) Education & Child Care, 4) Affordability and 5) Socio-economics. They evaluated those dimensions using 51 relevant metrics.  Data set ranged from the median annual family income to housing affordability to the unemployment rate.

In those overall categories, Connecticut ranked 1st in the nation in Affordability, 7th in Health & Safety and Education & Child Care, 29th in Family Fun and 38th in Socio-economics.  The Affordability category metrics included paid family leave, annual family health insurance premium, share of people who save money for their children’s college education, and median annual family income.

When all was said and done, the top 10 were Massachusetts, New York, Vermont, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Washington, North Dakota and New Jersey in the WalletHub ranking.

Surveying some of the key metrics used in the analysis, Connecticut ranked 3rd in the percentage of residents age 12+ who are fully vaccinated, 4th among states with the lowest violent crimes per capita, 8th in the lowest percentage of families in poverty, and with the 9th lowest infant-mortality rate.  Connecticut also ranked 10th in Median Annual Family Income (Adjusted for Cost of Living).  Other category rankings include:

  • 18th – Separation & Divorce Rate

  • 29th – Housing Affordability

  • 30th – % of Families with Young Children

At the bottom of the list were the states of South Carolina, Louisiana, New Mexico and Mississippi.

“In the end, each family must assess its own priorities. What do we value the most? Education, outdoor activities, liberal/conservative/libertarian ideologies, rural land vs. walkable city, etc. If contemplating a move, the salary must be considered in the context of community fit, affordability, and quality of life,” explained Preston A. Britner, Ph.D., Professor & Associate Department Head for Graduate Studies in Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Connecticut.

“State-level policies, political ideologies, and economic health can all have a big impact on family quality of life and child development outcomes…ZIP Codes within states might matter even more, in that median family income, tax policies, school quality, employment (rates, wages), housing (quality, affordability), health/safety, and environmental quality are localized,” Britner added.