Washington, D.C. has been ranked as the worst state to raise a family in 2019, according to a new research from the insurance company Policygenius.
The report found that childcare is extremely expensive in Washington, D.C. The average cost of childcare for a four-year-old is $18,657, while the state also has high rates of family poverty and high crime, according to a CNBC report.
Policygenious research discovered that the average cost of childcare is $23,666 in D.C., 39 percent of families live in poverty, and the crime rate was about 1,005 incidents per 100,000 people.
The average cost of rent in D.C. is about $2,527, according to a 2018 study by RentCafe, which estimated that two partners will need to make about $108,300 per year to afford to live here.
Hanna Horvath, the author of the Policygenius study, told Romper that D.C. ranked “last on the index with a score of 16.9/100.”
“Though its median household income is one of the highest in the country, D.C. has extremely high childcare costs and unaffordable housing — not to mention high violent crime and infant mortality rates,” said Horvath.
“Unsurprisingly, D.C. has a low percentage of families living there (21.5 percent) vs. Wyoming (30.1 percent). So, while median income may be an indicator of economic health in a given state, it isn’t always an indicator of family-friendliness,” she added.
Louisiana, New Mexico, South Carolina, and Michigan are other low ranking states on the list.
What makes a state a good place to raise children? The #PgFamilyFriendlyIndex ranks all 50 by metrics including median household income, violent crime rate, and college costs: https://t.co/sNPKq5ljBK
— Policygenius (@Policygenius) April 23, 2019
Policygenius took a number of factors into consideration for its findings, including safety, housing affordability, financial security, the cost of education and childcare, the divorce rate, among other factors.
The company weighed every factor equally against others. It was found that the lowest ranking states had expensive housing, regular crimes, scare or overpriced childcare options, and many people living in poverty. The states that took the top spots had the opposite attributes.
Wyoming topped the list as the best state to raise children. The report found that it’s affordable to send kids to college in Wyoming. Also, childcare is not that expensive, and it has low rates of violence and crime per capita.
Utah, Idaho, North Dakota, and Nebraska are the other best states to raise children on the list.
