State Rankings

The 2019 Opportunity Index provides Opportunity Scores for all 50 states plus the District of Columbia and for nearly 2,065 counties, which together represent 97 percent of the U.S. population.

Overall United States Opportunity Score: 53.2

From 2018 to 2019, Opportunity scores increased in 26 states and the District of Columbia while they decreased in 24 states. As displayed in Figure 2, for 37 states, increases or decreases were less than 1, so these states were considered to have flat scores. Relative to their 2016 scores, 42 states improved while 8 states and the District of Columbia declined. In 2019, 25 states have scores below the U.S. Opportunity Score of 53.2, while 25 states and the District of Columbia have scores above the average.

This year’s state Opportunity scores were strongly correlated with each state’s performance in the Community (0.86), Health (0.83), and Economy (0.76) dimensions. The indicators most strongly correlated with state Opportunity scores were youth disconnection (0.88), poverty (0.82), incarceration (0.80), and post-secondary education (0.75). State Opportunity scores correlated weakly with income inequality (.25) and housing affordability (.22).

Rank State Overall Opportunity Score
%
1 Minnesota 63.100
2 Vermont 63.000
3 Iowa 62.600
4 Massachusetts 60.900
5 Nebraska 60.500
6 North Dakota 60.100
7 Washington 59.300
8 New Hampshire 59.200
9 New Jersey 59.000
10 Connecticut 58.900
11 Maine 58.000
12 Wisconsin 57.900
13 Kansas 57.900
14 New York 57.400
15 Virginia 57.000
16 California 56.700
17 Hawaii 56.600
18 Oregon 56.600
19 South Dakota 56.600
20 Rhode Island 56.300
21 Maryland 56.300
22 Illinois 56.200
23 Utah 55.800
24 Montana 54.900
25 Colorado 54.700
26 District of Columbia 54.300
27 Michigan 53.100
28 Missouri 52.600
29 Idaho 52.400
30 Delaware 52.100
31 Pennsylvania 51.900
32 Alaska 51.600
33 North Carolina 51.400
34 Indiana 50.800
35 Wyoming 50.100
36 Ohio 49.900
37 Texas 49.800
38 South Carolina 49.600
39 Tennessee 49.400
40 Florida 49.100
41 Arkansas 48.800
42 Kentucky 48.600
43 Arizona 48.500
44 Georgia 48.300
45 Alabama 48.000
46 Oklahoma 47.100
47 Nevada 46.200
48 West Virginia 45.300
49 Mississippi 44.800
50 Louisiana 43.700
51 New Mexico 42.400

Learn more about the Data and Scoring »