PlainCompare

State Life Score

New York

Bottom-quartile composite Life Score — grade D, 8th percentile of the national corpus.

38.2
Life Score / 100
D
Grade (curved)
#47
of 51 states
8%
composite percentile

Data updated August 2026

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

The verdict

New York is bottom-quartile composite Life Score — #47 of 51 (38.2/100, grade D, 8th percentile). Carried by wages at 96/100; held back most by cost of living at 8/100.

8th
composite percentile
#47
of 51 peers
8th
cost dimension percentile
94th
wages dimension percentile

Life Score shape · BOTTOM · RENT-SQUEEZE

New York at a glance

New York is a BOTTOM-band RENT-SQUEEZE state: wages leads at 96/100 while cost of living drags at 8/100 (CEILING cost · PEAK wages). According to PlainCompare's federal Life Score corpus ranking, New York ranks #47 of 51 states by composite Life Score (highest = #1) and #47 of 51 by cost-of-living dimension score (highest = #1). Methodology.

Where New York sits among all US states

Composite Life Score vs the 50 states + DC

38 8th percentile higher than 8% 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%). This entry sits in this band. 40–45: 6 US states (12%). Above this entry. 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 New York scores, dimension by dimension

Score Breakdown

Cost of Living Wages Rent Safety Schools Childcare Environment

Dimension Scores

Cost of Living 8/100 (20%)
Wages 96/100 (20%)
Rent 18/100 (15%)
Safety 36/100 (15%)
Schools 10/100 (10%)
Childcare 25/100 (10%)
Environment 58/100 (10%)

Read with New York

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

New Jersey

ABS(composite) peer at 38.6 (Δ 0.4 vs this state); higher Life Score · grade D vs this page's BOTTOM · RENT-SQUEEZE · CEILING/PEAK.

Montana

ABS(composite) peer at 38.7 (Δ 0.5 vs this state); higher Life Score · grade C- vs this page's BOTTOM · RENT-SQUEEZE · CEILING/PEAK.

Maryland

ABS(composite) peer at 37.3 (Δ 0.9 vs this state); lower Life Score · grade D vs this page's BOTTOM · RENT-SQUEEZE · CEILING/PEAK.

Delaware

ABS(composite) peer at 40.0 (Δ 1.8 vs this state); higher Life Score · grade C- vs this page's BOTTOM · RENT-SQUEEZE · CEILING/PEAK.

Washington (cost pole)

ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 10/100 (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