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A TxDOT worker directs traffic at a construction project.
Texas ranks high among U.S. states for its workforce and economy but dead last for quality of life in an annual survey published by CNBC.
The business-news channel’s America’s Top States for Businesses in 2024 report ranks the Lone Star State at No. 1 for workforce as well as technology and innovation. Texas also ranked second for its economy, which is now the eighth-largest in the world — surpassing Russia, Canada, and Italy.
But the state’s overall standing was dragged down by its last-place ranking for quality of life.
The CNBC poll ranks all 50 states using 128 metrics and 10 broad categories, including infrastructure, workforce, economy, quality of life, cost of doing business, technology and innovation and business friendliness. Metrics are weighted partly on how states market themselves and the words they use to describe their best attributes. Researchers also consider how states deliver on those promises.
To determine quality of life rankings, researchers analyze livability factors such as environmental quality and per-capita crime rates. They also consider healthcare, where Texas typically scores low due to its high rate of uninsured residents, and worker protections, which the state has a history of opposing.
In the explanation of its methodology, CNBC also noted that surveys show half of younger workers “would not live in a state that bans abortion,” and Texas is one such state. As such, researchers “factor reproductive rights in this category as well.”
Texas’ mixed results prevented it from taking home the list’s overall top spot. It placed third behind Virginia and North Carolina, the respective No. 1 and No. 2.