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State Life Score

Nebraska

Top-5% composite Life Score — grade A, 96th percentile of the national corpus.

65.1
Life Score / 100
A
Grade (curved)
#2
of 51 states
96%
composite percentile

Data updated August 2026

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

The verdict

Nebraska is top-5% composite Life Score — #2 of 51 (65.1/100, grade A, 96th percentile). Carried by safety at 84/100; held back most by schools at 28/100.

96th
composite percentile
#2
of 51 peers
78th
cost dimension percentile
41st
wages dimension percentile

Life Score shape · TOP · SAFE-LED

Nebraska at a glance

Nebraska is a TOP-band SAFE-LED state: safety leads at 84/100 while schools drags at 28/100 (CHEAP cost · MID wages). According to PlainCompare's federal Life Score corpus ranking, Nebraska ranks #2 of 51 states by composite Life Score (highest = #1) and #11 of 51 by cost-of-living dimension score (highest = #1). Methodology.

Where Nebraska sits among all US states

Composite Life Score vs the 50 states + DC

65 Top 4% higher than 96% 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%). Below this entry. 60–65: 4 US states (8%). Below this entry. 65–70: 2 US states (4%). This entry sits in this band. 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 Nebraska scores, dimension by dimension

Score Breakdown

Cost of Living Wages Rent Safety Schools Childcare Environment

Dimension Scores

Cost of Living 80/100 (20%)
Wages 42/100 (20%)
Rent 78/100 (15%)
Safety 84/100 (15%)
Schools 28/100 (10%)
Childcare 64/100 (10%)
Environment 72/100 (10%)

Read with Nebraska

Nearest composite peers and cost poles (TOP · CHEAP/MID).

Kentucky

ABS(composite) peer at 64.1 (Δ 1.0 vs this state); lower Life Score · grade A vs this page's TOP · SAFE-LED · CHEAP/MID.

Mississippi

ABS(composite) peer at 66.3 (Δ 1.2 vs this state); higher Life Score · grade A+ vs this page's TOP · SAFE-LED · CHEAP/MID.

Iowa

ABS(composite) peer at 63.8 (Δ 1.3 vs this state); lower Life Score · grade A vs this page's TOP · SAFE-LED · CHEAP/MID.

Louisiana

ABS(composite) peer at 61.1 (Δ 4.0 vs this state); lower Life Score · grade A vs this page's TOP · SAFE-LED · CHEAP/MID.

Kansas (cost pole)

ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 82/100 (Δ 2); cost stamp CHEAP vs this state's CHEAP.

Missouri (cost pole)

ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 76/100 (Δ 4); cost stamp CHEAP vs this state's CHEAP.
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