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There have been a lot of studies about which state is good at this and which state is bad at that - you know the ones.  Articles covering which state has the best pizza, and the best states for dogs come to mind and that's just off of the top of my head.  There are hundreds if not thousands of these lists produced every year that rank states and regions in the country against each other based on sometimes inconsequential differences.

Almost all of these lists have one thing in common - they don't mind beating up on Louisiana.  Our latest blemish was being named the worst state in the U.S. for kids during the pandemic.  As bad as that is (and, it's bad) the newest report from U.S. News and World Report is worse.

The "Best States" report that they put out every year is the grand-daddy of all the previously mentioned list.  It is the definitive ranking of every state in the union based on factors like healthcare, education, economy, natural environment, and more.  I trust the data in this table more than all of the others combined.  Know what they had to say about Louisiana in the latest one?  We're the worst.

That's right, according to the most official list in the land - we are dead last.  Behind Mississippi, Oklahoma, and even Alabama in just about every way considered by the number crunchers at U.S. News and World Report.  We ranked 42 in fiscal stability - and that's our best trait!  Check out all of the stats and figures here - but don't expect to walk away with your head held high.

I'm going to look up a list of the state with the best food just to make myself feel better.

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READ ON: See the States Where People Live the Longest

Stacker used data from the 2020 County Health Rankings to rank every state's average life expectancy from lowest to highest. The 2020 County Health Rankings values were calculated using mortality counts from the 2016-2018 National Center for Health Statistics. The U.S. Census 2019 American Community Survey and America's Health Rankings Senior Report 2019 data were also used to provide demographics on the senior population of each state and the state's rank on senior health care, respectively.

Read on to learn the average life expectancy in each state.

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