WASHINGTON (WUSA9) — The best place in the U.S. for millennials to live is Washington D.C., according to a new analysis from WalletHub.
The financial website evaluated the best and worst places for people born between 1981 and 1997 by looking at five key factors: affordability, education and health, quality of life, economic health and civic engagement.
WalletHub used 30 relevant metrics to give each state (and D.C.) a score in those five categories and then added them up to calculate each state's official score out of 100.
The District has an aggregate score of 67.47. The nation's capital ranked first in three of the five categories - education and health, quality of life, and least surprisingly - civic engagement.
D.C. ranked as the 43rd most affordable place to live. The only surprising aspect about is there are eight states that are more expensive.
Since D.C. is such an expensive place to live, it's not particularly surprising that it came in first for having the highest average earnings for millennials.
Virginia came in at 20th overall with a score of 51.81, which was three-tenths of a point behind New York. Virginia ranked sixth in civic engagement, the only category in which it cracked the top 10.
The third component of the DMV, Maryland, came in as the 30th best state for millennials. Maryland only ranked inside the top 20 in two of the five categories - education and health (13th) and civic engagement (19th).
According to WalletHub, millennials and the state of West Virginia do not have a great relationship. The only state that ranked worse was New Mexico. West Virginia has the second lowest percentage of millennials, only behind Maine. The Mountain State ranked second in lowest housing costs for millennials, but even cheap living expenses cannot seem to get them to move in.
Top 10 best places for millennials to live, according to WalletHub:
- Washington, D.C.
- North Dakota
- Minnesota
- Massachusetts
- Iowa
- Wisconsin
- Utah
- Nebraska
- Colorado
- South Dakota
You can see the full list of states here.
