Minnesota: 2nd Best in the Nation for Kids' Well-Being

There didn't seem to be many articles specifically about our state, but Minnesota was ranked second in an annual Kids Count assessment of children’s well-being in the U.S. Minnesota has ranked first overall as recently as 2007 and consistently has been in the top four. Only New Hampshire ranks higher this year.

“It’s a good place for children to live,” said Tara Arzamendia, research director for Children’s Defense Fund Minnesota.

The 10 indicators of well-being that were taken into account for this list cover health, income, education and other factors. The statistics used include dropout rate, single-parent families, parental employment, teen birth rate, poverty rate, infant mortality rate and child and teen death rates. Minnesota ranked no less than 9th in any of the categories.

The authors of the Kids Count study said on a national level, the new data was mixed. Six factors showed improvement, and four got worse.

The study uses information from 2006 for health figures. The socioeconomic and education data dates to 2007. So the recession and unemployment of 2008 does not show up in the study.

Economic slowdown aside, this reinforces information that we've heard before about our state and about individual communities like Chanhassen, Edina, and Minneapolis: Minnesota is a wonderful place to live and a great place to raise a family.