Minnesota tumbles four places on Wallethub’s ranking of Best States to Live In, largely – but not entirely – due to rising crime

Last month, Fox 9 reported:

A new survey from the personal finance website WalletHub ranks Minnesota as the ninth-best state to live in for 2022.

The survey awards a total of 100 possible points to each state in five different categories worth 20 points each: affordability, economy, education, quality of life, and safety.

Gov. Walz saw this as cause for celebration, tweeting:

But Bring Me the News‘ coverage mentioned something that Fox 9 missed:

Minnesota is in the Top 10 “Best States To Live” according to WalletHub, but has dropped four positions from last year. [Emphasis added]

What caused this fall?

Last year, Minnesota ranked 21st on the Safety component of the ranking, but this year our state had crashed to a ranking of 31. Both reports note that the construction of this ranking is not without quibbles, a level of scrutiny lacking when Minnesota performs well on these rankings.

But while our state’s rising crime might account for the majority of our tumble down the rankings, it doesn’t account for all of it. Last year, Minnesota ranked 4 for education, this year that was down to 9.

Our state’s increasing problems with crime are well documented, but this is not the only area where Minnesota is struggling, as these ranking show. Even traditional sources of strength for our state, such as education, are being eroded.