Despite the fact that our entire state is on meth, as the advertising campaign stated, South Dakota was named one of the best states in the entire country.

US News and World Report named South Dakota the fifteenth best state in the country for 2021. The rankings are based on each state’s economy, health care, education, infrastructure, public safety, the fiscal stability of state government, and the opportunity people have there.

Of all of those ranking criteria, the one we scored highest in was state fiscal stability, for which we were the second-ranked state behind only Alaska. We were third-best in the nation for the natural environment behind Hawaii and New Hampshire.

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The category we did the poorest in was crime and corrections. We ranked 35th in the nation.

As for how we did compared to our bordering neighbors we crushed two of them and brought up the rear of the other group of four. Minnesota was the #2 ranked state in the country behind only Washington. Their worst ranking was for fiscal stability at #21. But on the brighter side of the rankings, they ranked second in the opportunity available for people to succeed.

Nebraska ranked sixth with infrastructure and natural environment being their strongest suits. Iowa came in at #12 ranking middle to top half in everything and ranked first in the country in opportunity. North Dakota ranked just ahead of the 605 at #14.

Montana and Wyoming, our western border neighbors were in the bottom half of the rankings at 33 and 35 respectively. The lowest-ranked state in the country was Louisiana.

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