By Carly Sauvageau, Reno Gazette Journal
The personal finance website WalletHub recently released its ranking of all 50 states by how good they are to live in. Nevada, as it has in many other rankings, was placed among the 10 worst states to live in the US.
The ranking was created using 51 indicators of livability, including housing costs, income growth, education and health care systems. Nevada scored a 44.54 overall out of 100, coming in at No. 45 (or the sixth worst). By comparison, the “best” state received a 60.15.
This low ranking is one of several that name Nevada among the country’s worst states.
Though Nevada consistently ranks low on key livability factors, there are still many pros to living in the Silver State. Even the studies that rank Nevada low overall, similar to WalletHub’s livability ranking, agree that Nevada excels at recreation, commute times and entertainment when compared to other states.
However, Nevada’s health care and education, and increasingly housing affordability, consistently drag the state to its low placement on livability rankings.
Here’s a closer look at the issues driving Nevada’s low rankings.
Nevada education concerns
Nevada regularly ranks low in education in state rankings.
In the WalletHub ranking, Nevada ranked No. 42 out of the 50 states in the health and education category. WalletHub used government and corporate data to measure factors like high school graduation rates and the share of people older than 25 with a high school diploma to determine its education ranking.
Nevada also received poor education ratings in U.S. News & World Report’s ranking of the best states in the country, where Nevada received the No. 40 spot in education.
This ranking takes into consideration pre-K-12 (where Nevada ranked No. 47) and higher education (where Nevada ranked No. 10). U.S. News & World Report’s pre-K-12 ranking was measured by ACT or SAT scores, high school graduation rates, each state’s Department of Education National Assessment of Educational Progress in reading and math and preschool enrollment. It measured higher education by two-year and four-year college graduation rates, the amount of the population with an associate degree or higher, low debt rates after education, and low tuition and fees.
Nevada ranks low in health care
As mentioned above, Nevada ranked No. 42 out of the 50 in WalletHub’s health and education category. WalletHub used several factors including how much of Nevada’s population is insured, the quality of the hospital system, life expectancy and the state’s share of physically inactive adults. WalletHub also gave the most significance to the amount of people in the state that are considered obese.
WalletHub’s ranking isn’t the only one that gave Nevada poor health rankings. U.S. News & World Report put Nevada at No. 42 for health for its nationwide ranking, basing its ranking on health care access, health care quality and public health.
Similarly, Nevada ranks near the bottom for overall health in the 2025 America’s Health Rankings annual report, which compares states across dozens of health and social measures. Nevada ranked No. 42 overall, ranking last in comparison to other Western states. Among other factors that made Nevada middling, the state’s poor housing stability, substance use and access to care drugs was what brought Nevada significantly down in these rankings.
Among the factors mentioned, Nevada also has a physician shortage.
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
