2018’s Best & Worst States to Raise a Family

From WalletHub, January 8, 2018

Raising a healthy, stable family sometimes requires moving to a new state. And the reasons are often similar: career transitions, better schools, financial challenges or perhaps a general desire to change settings.

But wants and needs don’t always align in a particular state, which might offer, for instance, a low income-tax rate yet subpar education system. Consequently, a family must make unnecessary sacrifices — the kinds that are easily avoided by knowing which states offer the best combination of qualities that matter most to parents and their kids.

To help with the evaluation process, WalletHub compared the 50 states across 42 key indicators of family-friendliness. Their data set ranges from median family salary to housing affordability to unemployment rate….

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Hawaii

• Overall Rank – 33rd
• Total Score  46.89
• ‘Family Fun’ Rank -- 35th
• ‘Health & Safety’ Rank -- 13th
• ‘Education & Child Care’ Rank -- 25th
• ‘Affordability’ Rank -- 50th
• ‘Socio-economics’ Rank -- 12th
• Median Family Salary – 50th
• Affordable Housing – 50th
• % of families with Young Kids – 47th
• Lowest Divorce Rate -- 5th