One accurate precis of the list and its perspective from a wag on Twitter/”X”:
- Not enough abortions
- Not gay enough
- “food insecurity”
- Not enough HR rules
- Not enough gun laws
- Not enough therapists
- Not enough working moms
- Not enough affirmative action
Revealing commentary in the report:
“Oklahoma imposes one of America’s strictest bans on abortion, even though studies, including one by the National Bureau of Economic Research last year, found abortion bans increase net migration outflows, particularly among single adults.The Sooner State ranked 40th for worker protections last year, according to Oxfam America, which said that the state’s $7.25 minimum wage covers only about 19% of the cost of living for a family of four, and noted that state law prohibits municipalities from setting their minimum wages any higher…“Alabama is one of five states with no public accommodation law protecting non-disabled people against discrimination, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures…Workers lack other basic protections including mandatory paid sick leave and protections against sexual harassmen”…Georgia offers few protections for LGBTQ+ people, making it one of America’s least inclusive states….The Peach State offers minimal worker protections, particularly when it comes to the right to organize….Tennessee Republicans, led by Gov. Bill Lee, make no apologies for a rash of state laws targeting the LGBTQ+ community, including a so-called “bathroom law” requiring transgender people to use the facilities designated for their sex at birth.,, To underscore the point, Lee signed a resolution earlier this year designating June “Nuclear Family Month.” …Its sponsors deliberately timed the observance to coincide with the month when Tennessee’s more than 300,000 LGBTQ+ people celebrate Pride.”
To emphasize what should be obvious, the “Worst States” are the states where those who regard woke policies, values and progressive cant as the most important aspects of their lives would feel most uncomfortable living. This is not an objective ranking.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis noted in an “X” post that states like Tennessee are gaining population while those wonderful woke states New York and California are losing citizens and businesses in droves. Last week a report came out revealing that Washington State leads the nation in shoplifting, but, of course, rampant theft and inadequate law enforcement wasn’t a criteria for CNBC’s list.
And thus does our corrupt and untrustworthy news media work to warp public perception and promote progressive policies and politicians.
Ethics Alarms 
I read that article and its compliment, “The best states to live in for 2026: No. 1 has a six-year winning streak”
Nebraska
Massachusetts
North Dakota
Virginia
New Hampshire
Hawaii
Connecticut
Minnesota
New Jersey
Maine
This is just as bad as the “Worst” list you covered.
Minnesota??????? Even my most extreme Left friends think Minnesota is an embarrassment.
Yeah, I laughed at that as well. In less than four weeks, we’re moving an hour further south in Iowa. For the sake of this discussion, it’s to get a further seventy miles from the stench of Minnesota’s political diarrhea.
“Minnesota??????? Even my most extreme Left friends think Minnesota is an embarrassment.”
IMO, Minnesota’s like WESconsin (albeit with fewer lakes and worse sports teams); once you get out of the WOKIE/White Lefty Guilt inundated/Messiah Complex obsessed/Victimhoodie blue zip codes, sanity prevails.
Another example: Rahm Emanuel took a 900-1000 mile/1448-1609 km bicycle trip around Lake Michigan in 2019.
His (IMO) key takeaway? “(T)he Worse The Cellphone Service Is, The Nicer People Are“
PWS
Nebraska is number one? Having been born there, and still having close relatives there, I cannot prove them wrong.
But …. I am astounded that as a couple of the top flyover states, they even recognize Nebraska and North Dakota as part of the United States.
The list of “worst states” according to progressive propagandists should be laid along side a list of states in order of net immigration and see how much they line up.
By real measures, California would be the #1 worst state. But then I suppose the CNBC measures are what the super woke would use
PT, Are you well acquainted with anyone who lives in California? (I am. The only two who disagree would be my trans-female nephew and his–oops, her..,er, their…oh, the hell with it– super-woke wife…)
Hilarious. I was actually in four of those states last week and my proud Hoosier heart swells to know that CNBC thinks Indiana is the third worst state to live in. Please, please, please continue to think that so we don’t have to suffer the insanity of what CNBC thinks is sanity being imported here.
Statistical psychology must be at play here since people who are likely to watch and/or visit CNBC are likely the ones who responded to the poll. It’s like saying “We polled 100 Trump voters about the worst state in which to live and they all listed California, New York, Colorado, Minnesota and Illinois!”
Of course, there’s a special kind of woke when the article displays a photo with protestors holding a sign that reads, “Stop transing gay kids” as an example of what is bad about Tennessee.
By the way, #6 on the worst list (Utah) is still the most beautiful state in the Union I’ve visited. The drive down 191 from I-70 to the border is breathtaking.
I like the list. Oklahoma is terrible for many reasons.
People need to be warned about these things so that they will stay away. We wouldn’t want anyone upset about these things to come and complain about them or force a federal judge to change them.
As a lifelong Tennessean, I have to agree. Things are awful here for woke progressives . Stay away and leave us to wallow in our deplorable awfulness. Save yourselves!
We escaped California five years ago and have no regrets. New Mexico would like to be just as blue, but with only 2.1 million people it will never have the money to be that crazy. Guess what you can buy in NM when you sell your overvalued home in CA.
Tennessee, Arkansas, Utah, Louisiana – some really beautiful country there.
Sheesh!
I am mightily offended that North Carolina didn’t make the list. We have a solidly Republican legislature, we’re a right to work state, people flock to the state in droves — how come we’re not listed in the 10 worst?
I am also offended, albeit somewhat less so, that we didn’t make the 10 best list. We have a Democratic governor and Attorney General, we voted for Biden, voted for Obama too if memory serves. On the other hand the Supreme Court is also solidly Republican after Democrats lost all but one statewide judicial race over the past 3 or 4 election cycles.
Rumor has it that Chapel Hill, after hearing a report that one of the main roads was congested because of all the traffic that moved along it — they responded by narrowing the road with the thought that then people would use another road. Probably apocryphal except that they do think that way. They banned Walmart who set up shop just over the county line in Chatham county — and now I’ve hear politicians complain that they don’t get enough sales tax revenue here. What a mystery.
I don’t know if they narrowed the road, but they did lower the speed limit on a main road to 15 mph. People were doing 45 in the 35 zone. So, they lowered it to 15 so people would slow down to 35.
Here’s the list compared to wikipedia’s list of net migration from 2020-2024:
1st column is ‘worst’ state ranking, 2nd column is migration from most to least
Tennessee Florida
Texas Texas
Indiana North Carolina
Louisiana South Carolina
Georgia Arizona
Utah Tennessee
Missouri Georgia
Alabama Idaho
Oklahoma Alabama
Arkansas Oklahoma
Wisconsin Nevada
Nevada Arkansas
Kansas Montana
South Carolina Utah
Arizona Maine
Montana Delaware
North Carolina Missouri
South Dakota Colorado
New Mexico Indiana
Kentucky New Hampshire
Florida Kentucky
California South Dakota
Idaho West Virginia
Alaska Wyoming
Mississippi Vermont
West Virginia Wisconsin
Wyoming Oregon
Oregon North Dakota
Illinois New Mexico
Delaware Rhode Island
Iowa Iowa
New York Nebraska
Ohio Alaska
Pennsylvania Washington
Rhode Island Mississippi
Michigan Kansas
Colorado Connecticut
Maryland Virginia
Washington Ohio
Nebraska Minnesota
Massachusetts Pennsylvania
North Dakota Hawaii
New Hampshire Michigan
Virginia Maryland
Hawaii Louisiana
Connecticut Massachusetts
Minnesota New Jersey
New Jersey Illinois
Maine New York
Vermont California
Just to summarize: The following states are all *closely correlated* in these lists (meaning they are less than 10 places offset from each other in their states (the number represents how far off they are in their lists of “worst” and “more people are moving there than moving away”:
Texas 0
Tennessee 5
Georgia 2
Alabama 1
Oklahoma 1
Utah 8
Arkansas 2
Nevada 1
Montana 3
South Dakota 4
Kentucky 1
West Virginia 3
Wyoming 3
Oregon 1
Alaska 9
Iowa 0
Rhode Island 5
Ohio 6
Nebraska 8
Washington 5
Pennsylvania 7
Michigan 7
Maryland 6
Virginia 6
Connecticut 9
Hawaii 3
Massachusetts 5
Minnesota 7
New Jersey 1
60% of states accurately line up.
Of course, the CNBC “ranking” is a single category in a larger evaluation of states’ “friendliness to business” and I can only assume the category is highlighted because progressive states fail so dismally in all other categories. Of course, it seems pretty obvious they fail in this category also.