The state of Iowa ranked sixth in the United States for best places to live according to usnews.com. The findings were made by looking at seven different categories including health care, education, crime and corrections, infrastructure, opportunity, economy, and government.

With all of those kept in mind, the people at usnews.com ranked Massachusetts as the best state, followed by New Hampshire and then Minnesota. On the other side of the spectrum, Louisiana was ranked the worst. Mississippi ranked before and then Arkansas took the best of the worst three.

These can’t be considered as facts, since the quality of living varies based on where you live in each state. This creates controversy regarding whether or not these rankings are accurate. However, usnews.com said, “The data driving these rankings were drawn from extensive and reliable governmental and private sources.” This means people can trust the rankings, but they need to keep the above seven categories in mind.

Many people would argue these seven categories don’t put one state over another. It would also depend on who the person is, so saying one state is better than another is completely an opinion. Terry Saul, a senior at Pleasant Valley who has lived in several states, said, “I just felt like the Kansas City area and the places I lived in Texas gave me a lot more opportunities to do whatever it is I wanted to do with my life.”

Iowa is a great place to live, but so is every other state in America. The one thing that people can do to truly rank the states is to visit them.