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 Community Index
1 Minnesota 62.30
2 Vermont 66.00
3 Iowa 57.00
4 Massachusetts 58.90
5 Nebraska 55.50
6 North Dakota 59.00
7 Washington 55.80
8 New Hampshire 59.60
9 New Jersey 55.80
10 Connecticut 54.90
11 Maine 66.00
12 Wisconsin 54.20
13 Kansas 51.20
14 New York 58.40
15 Virginia 51.10
16 California 46.90
17 Hawaii 49.90
18 Oregon 55.30
19 South Dakota 52.50
20 Rhode Island 57.60
21 Maryland 54.00
22 Illinois 51.50
23 Utah 54.50
24 Montana 55.60
25 Colorado 50.80
26 District of Columbia 62.00
27 Michigan 51.90
28 Missouri 47.80
29 Idaho 46.20
30 Delaware 47.30
31 Pennsylvania 51.20
32 Alaska 53.00
33 North Carolina 50.90
34 Indiana 47.20
35 Wyoming 48.70
36 Ohio 51.00
37 Texas 39.50
38 South Carolina 47.00
39 Tennessee 44.30
40 Florida 43.60
41 Arkansas 40.70
42 Kentucky 45.30
43 Arizona 41.20
44 Georgia 41.20
45 Alabama 41.50
46 Oklahoma 39.20
47 Nevada 39.30
48 West Virginia 46.90
49 Mississippi 39.70
50 Louisiana 39.80
51 New Mexico 40.10

Learn more about the Data and Scoring »