Best and Worst State Economies for 2021

Park City, Utah

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The 50 states and Washington, D.C., were assessed by one personal finance website across 29 key indicators of economic performance and strength. Utah had the best economy and Hawaii the worst.

Utah has the best state economy and Hawaii has the worst, according to WalletHub, a personal finance website.

Filling out the top five list behind Utah is Washington, California, Massachusetts and Idaho. Ranked at the bottom of the list before Hawaii are Oklahoma, Alaska, Louisiana and West Virginia. 

Other states ranked in the top 10 are Colorado, Maryland, Oregon, Arizona and Georgia. Kentucky, Nevada, Maine, Mississippi and Wyoming were ranked in the lower tenth of the list. 

WalletHub compared the 50 states and Washington, D.C., across 29 key indicators of economic performance and strength. The data set ranged from gross domestic product growth to startup activity to the share of jobs in high-tech industries.

WalletHub ranked each state taking into account economic activity, which includes a change in GDP from 2020 to 2019, the share of fast-growing firms, each state's gross public debt as a percent of GDP and exports per capita.

Also, the website looked at the economic health of every state using criteria including the unemployment and under-employment rates and the change in the total civilian labor force from 2020. Furthermore, each state’s innovation potential was examined with categories including the share of jobs in high-tech industries, share of jobs in STEM employment and entrepreneurial activity, among others.

In total, WalletHub evaluated dimensions using 29 relevant metrics. Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the highest economic performance.

The highest change in GDP, according to WalletHub, was in Utah, Washington, Arizona, Idaho and Colorado. Idaho was ranked first in economic health, while Massachusetts was ranked No. 1 in innovation potential. 

To see more about WalletHub’s ranking of state economies click here.

Brent Woodie is associate editor for Route Fifty.

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