We know that quality of life is a major factor why people stay or come to New Hampshire.  New Hampshire always ranks highly in the various surveys that measure factors that impact quality of life, but no one has ever put all of these together to get an overall sense of how NH compares to other states.

Now we have.  We call it the Living Index.  It’s a combination of eight different national quality of life rankings. Each are weighted evenly and the total rankings are summed up.  The states are then ranked based on the total score, and the lower score represents the higher rankings.

Guess what?  NH comes out on top…by a very large margin.  It confirms what you already know.  Check it out, compare NH to other states.  We’ll update this regularly as each of the indexes is updated.  If you want to see the eight individual rankings, they are on this site as well.

Sources: Standard of Living (by Poverty Rate, 2006-08), U.S. Census Bureau; Most Livable State, CQ Press, 2008; Safest State (crimes per 100,000 people), CQ Press, 2009; Child and Family Well-being, Annie E. Casey Foundation Kids Count, 2009; Healthiest State, CQ Press, 2009; % Population Graduated HS, Education Week, 2009; Per Capita Income, US Census, 2008