Minnesota Hits No. 1

Min­neso­ta is shak­ing things up in the pur­suit of bet­ter, brighter futures for America’s kids. 

For the first time in about a decade, a state out­side of New Eng­land has cap­tured the no. 1 spot in the KIDS COUNT rank­ings for over­all child well-being. 

“We know that it’s impor­tant to invest in chil­dren and fam­i­lies to ensure a bright future for all Min­nesotans,” says Stephanie Hogen­son, the research and pol­i­cy direc­tor for the Children’s Defense Fund-Min­neso­ta, the state’s KIDS COUNT orga­ni­za­tion. ​“We still have work to do — espe­cial­ly to sup­port chil­dren and fam­i­lies of col­or — but this rank­ing tells us that our state and local invest­ments are pay­ing off.” 

KIDS COUNT, a project by the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion, is a nation­al and state-by-state effort to track the sta­tus of chil­dren in the Unit­ed States. 

As part of this effort, the Foun­da­tion pro­duces its annu­al KIDS COUNT Data Book, which uses 16 key indi­ca­tors to rank states on how their chil­dren are far­ing. These indi­ca­tors fall into 4 main groups: fam­i­ly and com­mu­ni­ty, edu­ca­tion, eco­nom­ic well-being and health. 

Min­neso­ta is no stranger to the top of the KIDS COUNT chart, rank­ing 5^th over­all in 2012 and 2014 and 4^th over­all in 2013. 

Here are the highs — and lows — of the 2015 KIDS COUNT index: 

3 high­est-rank­ing states 
Min­neso­ta, New Hamp­shire and Mass­a­chu­setts (2014’s list leader)

3 low­est-rank­ing states 
Louisiana, New Mex­i­co and Mississippi. 

Curi­ous to see how all 50 states stack up? 
Check out the full list of KIDS COUNT rank­ings for over­all child well-being. 

Want to learn more about child well-being in the Unit­ed States? 
View the 2015 KIDS COUNT Data Book.