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State Life Score

California

Bottom-quartile composite Life Score — grade C-, 16th percentile of the national corpus.

40.1
Life Score / 100
C-
Grade (curved)
#43
of 51 states
16%
composite percentile

Data updated August 2026

Verify: BEA · BLS · HUD · FBI · NCES · EPA · Census · Report a data issue · Data changelog

The verdict

California is bottom-quartile composite Life Score — #43 of 51 (40.1/100, grade C-, 16th percentile). Carried by schools at 100/100; held back most by cost of living at 0/100.

16th
composite percentile
#43
of 51 peers
0th
cost dimension percentile
92nd
wages dimension percentile

Life Score shape · LOWER · RENT-SQUEEZE

California at a glance

California is a LOWER-band RENT-SQUEEZE state: schools leads at 100/100 while cost of living drags at 0/100 (CEILING cost · PEAK wages). According to PlainCompare's federal Life Score corpus ranking, California ranks #43 of 51 states by composite Life Score (highest = #1) and #51 of 51 by cost-of-living dimension score (highest = #1). Methodology.

Where California sits among all US states

Composite Life Score vs the 50 states + DC

40 16th percentile higher than 16% of 51 US states

25–30: 1 US states (2%). Below this entry. 30–35: 2 US states (4%). Below this entry. 35–40: 4 US states (8%). Below this entry. 40–45: 6 US states (12%). This entry sits in this band. 45–50: 10 US states (20%). Above this entry. 50–55: 12 US states (24%). Above this entry. 55–60: 10 US states (20%). Above this entry. 60–65: 4 US states (8%). Above this entry. 65–70: 2 US states (4%). Above this entry. This state 25 70 every US state, bucketed by value

Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more US states. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.

Source PlainCompare composite of BEA, BLS, HUD, FBI, NCES, DOL, EPA data

Dimension detail

How California scores, dimension by dimension

Score Breakdown

Cost of Living Wages Rent Safety Schools Childcare Environment

Dimension Scores

Cost of Living 0/100 (20%)
Wages 94/100 (20%)
Rent 8/100 (15%)
Safety 12/100 (15%)
Schools 100/100 (10%)
Childcare 5/100 (10%)
Environment 78/100 (10%)

Read with California

Nearest composite peers and cost poles (LOWER · CEILING/PEAK).

Delaware

ABS(composite) peer at 40.0 (Δ 0.1 vs this state); lower Life Score · grade C- vs this page's LOWER · RENT-SQUEEZE · CEILING/PEAK.

Connecticut

ABS(composite) peer at 40.6 (Δ 0.5 vs this state); higher Life Score · grade C- vs this page's LOWER · RENT-SQUEEZE · CEILING/PEAK.

South Carolina

ABS(composite) peer at 41.3 (Δ 1.2 vs this state); higher Life Score · grade C- vs this page's LOWER · RENT-SQUEEZE · CEILING/PEAK.

Montana

ABS(composite) peer at 38.7 (Δ 1.4 vs this state); lower Life Score · grade C- vs this page's LOWER · RENT-SQUEEZE · CEILING/PEAK.

Hawaii (cost pole)

ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 2/100 (Δ 2); cost stamp CEILING vs this state's CEILING.

District of Columbia (cost pole)

ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 4/100 (Δ 4); cost stamp CEILING vs this state's CEILING.
State rankings → Compare states →

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Data sourced from official public datasets, current as of 2026. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainCompare