North Dakota Tops List of Best US States for Young Adults
Foster City, California (PRWEB) October 14, 2013 -- Forget historically hyped states such as New York and California – young people looking to begin their adult lives are likely to find the most favorable conditions in the nation in North Dakota, according to a new analysis by MoneyRates.com.
MoneyRates.com’s state-by-state research examined eight factors that are likely to matter to young adults:
• Youth unemployment
• Proportion of young adults in the state’s population
• College costs
• Rental availability
• Rental costs
• High-speed Internet access
• Number of bars, pubs and nightclubs per capita
• Number of fitness clubs per capita
When all 50 states were compared to each other across these categories, Midwest states claimed the majority of spots in the top 10. While these results may seem surprising to the many who don’t view places such as North Dakota and South Dakota as youth meccas, Richard Barrington, CFA, MoneyRates.com senior financial analyst, notes that North Dakota has a higher percentage of people age 18-24 than any other state in the union.
“Some people may raise their eyebrows when they see North Dakota ranked as the best state for young people,” says Barrington. “However, the fact that such a high portion of its population is between 18 and 24 shows that the state is attractive to that age group.”
Barrington says that the availability of jobs in places such as North Dakota – as evidenced by its 5.1 percent unemployment rate for people age 20-24 – is likely a key factor in the state’s ongoing boom.
“Young people have a very hard time finding jobs today, which is especially hard when so many are graduating college with massive amounts of student loan debt,” says Barrington. “North Dakota may not have bright lights and big cities, but pragmatically, if it has jobs that may be enough to attract young adults.”
Still, jobs weren’t North Dakota’s only strong areas in the study. Its educational and rental costs were also very low, and it also has the second-highest number of bars, pubs and nightclubs per capita in the nation, trailing only Wisconsin. South Dakota also excelled across multiple areas in the study, posting above-average scores in every category.
For young adults who don’t see themselves heading to the Midwest to live, the top 10 also include some warm-weather havens, such as Hawaii (No. 6) and Louisiana (No. 8), and even a New England state in Massachusetts (No. 9).
Here is the full list of MoneyRates.com’s top 10 states for young adults:
1. North Dakota
2. South Dakota
3. Nebraska
4. Montana
5. Iowa
6. Hawaii
7. Oklahoma
8. Louisiana
9. Massachusetts
10. Utah
For more on the methodology and the top 10 states in the rankings, please see MoneyRates.com’s “States where youth rules 2013.”
To see how each of the 50 states ranked, please see the full list of best and worst states for young people.
About MoneyRates.com
MoneyRates.com has been a leading source of information on bank rates, personal finance, savings accounts and investing since 1999. The site provides the highest rates on certificates of deposit, money market accounts and high-yield savings accounts. MoneyRates.com is owned and operated by QuinStreet, Inc. (NASDAQ: QNST), one of the largest Internet marketing and media companies in the world. QuinStreet is committed to providing consumers and businesses with the information they need to research, find and select the products, services and brands that best meet their needs. The company is a leader in ethical marketing practices. For more information, please visit QuinStreet.com.
Alex Bryant, MoneyRates.com, http://www.moneyrates.com, 212-863-4753, [email protected]
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