PlainCompare

State Life Score

Minnesota

Top-quartile composite Life Score — grade B+, 76th percentile of the national corpus.

56.6
Life Score / 100
B+
Grade (curved)
#12
of 51 states
76%
composite percentile

Data updated August 2026

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The verdict

Minnesota is top-quartile composite Life Score — #12 of 51 (56.6/100, grade B+, 76th percentile). Carried by wages at 88/100; held back most by environment at 16/100.

76th
composite percentile
#12
of 51 peers
41st
cost dimension percentile
86th
wages dimension percentile

Life Score shape · UPPER · WAGE-LED

Minnesota at a glance

Minnesota is a UPPER-band WAGE-LED state: wages leads at 88/100 while environment drags at 16/100 (MID cost · PEAK wages). According to PlainCompare's federal Life Score corpus ranking, Minnesota ranks #12 of 51 states by composite Life Score (highest = #1) and #30 of 51 by cost-of-living dimension score (highest = #1). Methodology.

Where Minnesota sits among all US states

Composite Life Score vs the 50 states + DC

57 Top 24% higher than 76% 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%). Below this entry. 45–50: 10 US states (20%). Below this entry. 50–55: 12 US states (24%). Below this entry. 55–60: 10 US states (20%). This entry sits in this band. 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 Minnesota scores, dimension by dimension

Score Breakdown

Cost of Living Wages Rent Safety Schools Childcare Environment

Dimension Scores

Cost of Living 42/100 (20%)
Wages 88/100 (20%)
Rent 60/100 (15%)
Safety 62/100 (15%)
Schools 68/100 (10%)
Childcare 39/100 (10%)
Environment 16/100 (10%)

Read with Minnesota

Nearest composite peers and cost poles (UPPER · MID/PEAK).

Wyoming

ABS(composite) peer at 56.0 (Δ 0.6 vs this state); lower Life Score · grade B+ vs this page's UPPER · WAGE-LED · MID/PEAK.

Ohio

ABS(composite) peer at 55.9 (Δ 0.7 vs this state); lower Life Score · grade B+ vs this page's UPPER · WAGE-LED · MID/PEAK.

Wisconsin

ABS(composite) peer at 55.8 (Δ 0.8 vs this state); lower Life Score · grade B+ vs this page's UPPER · WAGE-LED · MID/PEAK.

Kansas

ABS(composite) peer at 55.6 (Δ 1.0 vs this state); lower Life Score · grade B vs this page's UPPER · WAGE-LED · MID/PEAK.

Vermont (cost pole)

ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 44/100 (Δ 2); cost stamp MID vs this state's MID.

Utah (cost pole)

ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 40/100 (Δ 2); cost stamp MID vs this state's MID.
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