WASHINGTON, D.C. — Utah easily leads the nation in terms of its performance across 13 forward-looking metrics that might determine which states will be the best places to live in the future. Minnesota, Colorado, Nebraska, and North Dakota round out the top five.
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Utah does best in part because it is among the top two best-performing states for low smoking habits, ease of finding clean and safe water, having supervisors who treat workers like a partner rather than a boss, learning something new or interesting on any given day, and perceptions that your city or area are “getting better” rather than “getting worse.”
These are five of 13 metrics encompassing economic, workplace, community, and personal choices Gallup used to assess the future livability of 50 states. The findings are based on the results of over 530,000 interviews with U.S. adults conducted Jan. 2, 2011, through June 30, 2012, as a part of Gallup Daily tracking and the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. Previous results focusing on the best future region in the U.S. recently appeared inВ Business Insider as well asВ Gallup.com and theВ Gallup Business Journal.
The remaining eight metrics include evaluations of one’s life five years from now,В economic confidence,В job creation, standard of living momentum, obesity, ease of finding a safe place to exercise, visits to the dentist, and the percentage of workers employed full time for an employer. The selection of the 13 metrics was not based on any statistical model, but rather on their presumed relevance to future livability. Each metric contributed equally to the final ranking.