California makes poor showing
in State livability study

By Brigid Gaffikin, Bay City News

March 8, 2006

California ranked relatively poorly in Morgan Quitno Press's annual Most Livable State Award, announced today, placing 34th out of the 50 states surveyed.

New Hampshire earned first place in the survey, followed by Minnesota.

The Most Livable State Award considers 44 negative and positive factors ranging from a state's crime rate, personal bankruptcy rate and highway fatality rate to median household income, per capita gross state product and percentage of days each year that are sunny.

A high proportion of books in public libraries per capita and a strong showing at the polls among a state's eligible voters will help boost it's ranking.

But factors like high average monthly electric bills and state prisoner incarceration rates will push down a state's showing.

California's ranking in part reflects its size, according to Scott Morgan, Morgan Quitno's president.

"California is essentially a country into its own in terms of its size" and many regions, some of them "tremendously strong" and others "remarkably bad," together contribute to the state's ranking, he said.

That said, no one factor can skew a state's place and nothing in the survey has more weight than anything else, Morgan explained.

California did do well in a few areas, coming in 44th for its low rate of personal bankruptcy and having the 47th lowest rate of infant mortality.

The state also has more sunny days each year than all but three states - Arizona, Hawaii and New Mexico - another factor that helps boost it's placing.

But the state placed near the bottom in other areas, with the lowest rate of marriage among all states and falling behind only New York in home ownership, both factors Morgan Quitno considers positive indicators of a state's livability, Morgan said.

Morgan Quitno Press is a Lawrence, Kan., independent, private research and publishing company that specializes in reference books comparing states and cities in a range of subject areas, according to the company's Web site, at http://www.morganquitno.com/srml.htm

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