Iowa & Illinois In Top 20 Of 2021 Best States To Raise A Family

A lot of experts are expecting a 'COVID-19 baby boom' in 2021 after many families were forced to work from. If you're starting your family and/or growing your family and need a great place to raise your family, Iowa and Illinois might not be a bad option.

Whether you are going to welcome your first or fourth child in 2021, it's very important to raise your family in a good state. A new survey has come out show the best and worst states to raise your family in 2021.

Our friends at WalletHub released their findings for the best and worst states to raise a family in 2021. To find out where each state ranked WalletHub compared the 50 states across five key dimensions:

1. Family Fun
2. Health & Safety
3. Education & Child Care
4. Affordability
5. Socio-economics

They then evaluated those dimensions using 52 relevant metrics. Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the most favorable conditions for family life.

Finally, WalletHub determined each state’s weighted average across all metrics to calculate its overall score and used the resulting scores to rank-order the states.

This is how each state did on WalletHub's list.

According to WalletHub, Iowa ranked #12 and Illinois #16.

Iowa has the following rankings in each metric:

1. Family Fun - 34
2. Health & Safety - 8
3. Education & Child Care - 11
4. Affordability - 15
5. Socio-economics - 8

Iowa's overall score was 55.37. Iowa also ranked #5 as having the highest median family income, and #1 in most affordable housing.

Illinois has the following rankings in each metric:

1. Family Fun - 3
2. Health & Safety - 31
3. Education & Child Care - 18
4. Affordability - 24
5. Socio-economics - 45

Illinois' overall ranking was 53.13.