Massachusetts ranked as one of the best states in America

BOSTON (WWLP) – Massachusetts has been ranked as one of the top 10 states in the country that is doing the best job overall in a recent report.

There are several ways that you can assess how state governments are serving their residents, such as a high school graduation rate can point to the caliber of a state’s public education system, or how the share of people lacking health insurance shows health care access in a state.

U.S. News & World Reports used over 70 metrics and thousands of data points to capture which states are doing the best job overall in areas like education, health care, the economy, and opportunity.

This project is in its sixth year and focused on eight categories including crime and corrections, infrastructure, fiscal stability, and natural environment. Each of the eight categories was assigned weights that were based on the average of three years of data from recent national surveys that asked around 70,000 people total to prioritize each subject in their state.

Massachusetts was ranked as the 10th best state in America, with top-ranking categories including health care, education, crime and corrections. The fields of education and health services employ the most people in Massachusetts currently, with another top industry being manufacturing, especially computer and electronic products. The state’s technology factor has grown in recent years and is one of the most concentrated in the nation.

It has a balance of historical destinations and picturesque beaches such as Cape Cod, Nantucket, and Martha’s Vineyard, and the tourism industry is also a major economic powerhouse. Massachusetts has also led the way in universal health coverage with a plan that was enacted in 2006, which inspired former President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act.

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22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts in March 1953. Watch the 22News digital edition on weekdays at 4 p.m.

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