Iowa, Illinois In Top 20 Best States To Have A Baby

For those that are looking to grow their family and want to know where the best places to raise a child are, a new study has come out showing the best and worst states to have a baby. With the Quad Cities including both Iowa and Illinois, we obviously focus on those two states. Luckily, the study revealed that Iowa, Illinois, and the Quad Cities are actually pretty good places to have babies.

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Our friends at WalletHub recently revealed the 2021 Best and Worst States to Have A Baby in. To figure out the best and worst states to have a baby, WalletHub compared the 50 states and Washington D.C. across four key dimensions:

1. Cost
2. Health Care
3. Baby-Friendliness
4. Family-Friendliness

They took those 4 key dimensions and evaluated them using 31 relevant metrics. Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the best conditions for expectant parents and newborns.

Finally, WalletHub determined each state and the District’s weighted average across all metrics and calculated their overall scores to rank each state from best to the worst state's to have a baby in.

When all the math was said and done, this is what they came up with:

WalletHub found that Iowa and Illinois are in the top 20 best states to have a baby in. Iowa is the 12th best state to have a baby in with an overall score of 57.72. Below is Iowa's rank in the four key dimensions:

1. Cost = 10th
2. Health Care = 17th
3. Baby-Friendliness = 33rd
4. Family-Friendliness = 12th

Illinois was a little below Iowa. Illinois is the 20th best state to have a baby in. Illinois had an overall score of 54.88. Below is Illinois' rank in the four key dimensions:

1. Cost = 34th
2. Health Care = 7th
3. Baby-Friendliness = 32nd
4. Family-Friendliness = 16th

The best state to have a baby in, according to WalletHub, is Massachusetts. Mississippi was labeled as 2021's worst state to have a baby in.