Indiana 3rd-worst state for quality of life, U.S. News & World Report study finds

A new category in U.S. News & World Report's annual "Best States" rankings plays a role in pulling Indiana's overall ranking down to 33rd out of 50. That's a big tumble from its No. 22 ranking in 2017.

"Quality of Life," measures each state's natural and social environment. It takes into consideration each state's drinking water, pollution, voter participation and community engagement. This is the first year that category been used in U.S. News & World Report's annual rankings, and Indiana's inaugural score landed the state 48th out of 50. It finished behind only New Jersey (49th) and California (50th).

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Here's how Indiana finished in the other categories, compared to its 2017 rankings:

Crime & Corrections: 30th (33rd)

Economy: 25th (26th)

Education: 35th (27th)

Fiscal stability: 8th (New in 2018)

Healthcare: 40th (41st)

Infrastructure: 30th (20th)

Opportunity: 11th (4th)

Indiana released more toxic chemicals into the air than all but five other states in the U.S. in 2016 — 133 million pounds of them, to be exact.

While Indiana ranks in the bottom half of states in overall ranking, it scored highly in two categories: fiscal stability and opportunity. Fiscal stability measures long-term and short-term stability, while opportunity measures economic opportunity, equality and affordability.

The rankings are determined by the average of two years of surveys, asking a combined total of 30,000 people to rank each category's importance in their state. You can read more about the methodology here.

Not every category in the study carries the same weight, either. Here's U.S. News & World Report's weight index for the categories it studied:

Crime & Corrections: 10.62 percent

Economy: 14.39 percent

Education: 15.53 percent

Fiscal stability: 9.51 percent

Healthcare: 16.05 percent

Infrastructure: 12.47 percent

Opportunity: 13.36 percent

Quality of life: 8.08 percent

Though Indiana scored 48th out of 50 in the quality of life category, that category has the least importance in the rankings.

Top five states

Iowa Minnesota Utah North Dakota New Hampshire

Bottom five states (starting with worst)

Louisiana Mississippi New Mexico West Virginia Alabama

Visit U.S. News & World Report's website to learn more about the rankings.

Andrew Clark is Facebook editor for IndyStar. Follow him on Twitter @Clarky_Tweets. Like IndyStar on Facebook by clicking here.