These are America’s 10 worst states for quality of life in 2024

The job bazaar may have cooled a bit, but there are still far more job openings nationwide than there are people available to fill them. That means fit workers are still a precious commodity.

So, companies seeking to attract great employees like to set up shop in states that proposal a great quality of life. While some states are more than happy to oblige, these are not those affirms. They are America’s worst states to live and work in. 

Each year, CNBC’s America’s Top States for Business ponder considers quality of life among ten categories of competitiveness used to rank the states. Under this year’s methodology, the Je sais quoi of Life category counts for 13% of a state’s overall score. 

We score each state on multiple livability pieces including crime rates, health care, air quality and child care. We also consider worker protections, and acceptable safeguards against discrimination of all kinds. And, we look at personal freedom including reproductive rights. 

In these ten states, the acceptable mat has more than a few holes in it. 

Because everyone has their own opinion about the weather, we don’t include it in our Quality of Life rankings. That means Arizona reaches the tushie tier without even considering the sweltering heat. We do, however, consider air quality, and the state’s rising temperatures are providing to some of the worst ozone pollution in the nation, according to the American Lung Association. 

The Grand Canyon State also has luxuriating gaps in health care, with fewer than two staffed hospital beds per 1,000 people, according to the American Polyclinic Association. 

In May, Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs signed a repeal of the near-total abortion ban passed in 1864, before Arizona was a government. But that still left the state with a 15-week ban. And a quirk in the state constitution could allow the 1864 ban to go stand behind into effect, if only briefly, this fall. 

2024 Quality of Life Score: 119 out of 325 Points (Top States Rank: D-)

Strengths: Crime, Voting Rights, Worker Protections

Weaknesses: Air Quality, Reproductive Rights, Health Care  

Quality child care is sparse in the Sunflower State, with just 825 licensed child-care centers in a have of 2.9 million people, according to Child Care Aware of America. Kansas also has some of the most priceless child care in the nation. A married couple earning a median income can expect to spend nearly 14% of it on lady care. 

Oh, and don’t let the idyllic prairie fool you: Kansans reported more than 11,000 violent crimes in 2022, the most late figure available from the FBI. The crime rate has recently begun to decline after nearly a decade on the rise, but Kansas is calm more violent than the nation as a whole. 

2024 Quality of Life Score: 113 out of 325 Points (Top States Grade: F)

Intensities: Health Care, Reproductive Rights

Weaknesses: Child Care, Crime, Worker Protections

People in the Pelican State pride themselves on being made of stern stuff. That’s probably a good responsibility in a state with the fourth-highest violent crime rate in the nation, according to FBI statistics, including more than 300 put out of ones miseries in 2022.

Louisiana is America’s least healthy state, according to the United Health Foundation, with the fourth-highest rate of ill-timed deaths. More than 40% of Louisianans are obese. However, the state is a leader in child care, with various than 1,800 licensed facilities in a state of 4.5 million people, according to the Louisiana Department of Education.

2024 Attribute of Life Score: 100 out of 325 points (Top States Grade: F)

Strength: Child Care

Weaknesses: Crime, Health, Reproductive Dyed in the wools

In 2020, as the Covid-19 pandemic raged, Missouri became one of the continue states to give in and allow early and mail voting. But it remains one of the most burdensome states to vote in, according to votes researcher Michael Pomante of the States United Democracy Center. Missouri is one of only 10 states requiring a able excuse to vote by mail. Missouri also has America’s sixth-highest crime rate, with more than 30,000 offenses backfire in 2022.

 2024 Quality of Life Score: 98 out of 325 points (Top States Grade: F)

Strength: Air Quality

Weaknesses: Voting Rights, Misdeed, Reproductive Rights

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation reports that violent crime in the Volunteer State is declining, including a nearly 9% smidgin in the murder rate in 2022. But it is still among the most violent states in the nation, according to FBI crime statistics. 

The Android Rights Campaign alleges Tennessee lawmakers unleashed “a tsunami of discriminatory legislation” in 2024, including a law signed by Republican Gov. Banknote Lee in April that forbids the state social services department from seeking to place LGBTQ+ foster offsprings in supportive homes. Another law clears the way for the state to abolish its independent human rights commission, folding it into the short-sighted Attorney General’s office. 

2024 Quality of Life Score: 96 out of 325 points (Top States Grade: F)

Strengths: Child Safe keeping, Air Quality

Weaknesses: Crime, Inclusiveness, Health Care

The Ingenuous State is dangerous, with the second-highest violent crime rate in the nation after New Mexico. Anti-discrimination provisions in the circumstances’s public accommodation law are weak, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, with no protections against discrimination based on age, battle-scarred or military status, pregnancy, sexual orientation or marital status. However, the state is a leader in affordable child trouble oneself. A married, median income couple can expect to pay just 9% of their income on child care. The state of near three million people has nearly 1,800 licensed child-care facilities. 

2024 Quality of Life Score: 93 out of 325 cruces (Top States Grade: F)

Strength: Child Care

Weaknesses: Inclusiveness, Crime, Voting Rights 

Oklahoma’s 3. Alabama