Reblog: These 10 states are America’s best for quality of life in 2025
Above: Stowe, Vermont | Getty Images
With talent in short supply and the nation’s workforce more mobile than ever, companies are seeking to locate in places where workers want to live. That makes quality of life an economic issue. And state economic development organizations are leaning into that as they pitch their states to business.
“Connecticut is one state with a whole lot of everything,” the state’s Department of Economic and Community Development declares on its website, which goes on to tout the state’s “good quality of life” more than half a dozen times.
“New Mexico offers a place your employees will love and want to stay,” its state economic development website says.
“The good life is calling,” says Nebraska.
But where is the best life? CNBC’s annual competitiveness study, America’s Top States for Business, is here to find out. Because quality of life has become so essential in attracting quality talent, we consider it among ten categories of competitiveness. While any state can say it is a great place to live, we put those claims to the test using empirical data.
