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State Life Score

North Dakota

Top-quartile composite Life Score — grade A-, 86th percentile of the national corpus.

59.7
Life Score / 100
A-
Grade (curved)
#7
of 51 states
86%
composite percentile

Data updated August 2026

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

The verdict

North Dakota is top-quartile composite Life Score — #7 of 51 (59.7/100, grade A-, 86th percentile). Carried by rent at 90/100; held back most by schools at 12/100.

86th
composite percentile
#7
of 51 peers
84th
cost dimension percentile
55th
wages dimension percentile

Life Score shape · TOP · BALANCED

North Dakota at a glance

North Dakota is a TOP-band BALANCED state: rent leads at 90/100 while schools drags at 12/100 (FLOOR cost · MID wages). According to PlainCompare's federal Life Score corpus ranking, North Dakota ranks #7 of 51 states by composite Life Score (highest = #1) and #8 of 51 by cost-of-living dimension score (highest = #1). Methodology.

Where North Dakota sits among all US states

Composite Life Score vs the 50 states + DC

60 Top 14% higher than 86% 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 North Dakota scores, dimension by dimension

Score Breakdown

Cost of Living Wages Rent Safety Schools Childcare Environment

Dimension Scores

Cost of Living 86/100 (20%)
Wages 56/100 (20%)
Rent 90/100 (15%)
Safety 64/100 (15%)
Schools 12/100 (10%)
Childcare 52/100 (10%)
Environment 18/100 (10%)

Read with North Dakota

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

South Dakota

ABS(composite) peer at 59.4 (Δ 0.3 vs this state); lower Life Score · grade A- vs this page's TOP · BALANCED · FLOOR/MID.

Idaho

ABS(composite) peer at 60.1 (Δ 0.4 vs this state); higher Life Score · grade A- vs this page's TOP · BALANCED · FLOOR/MID.

West Virginia

ABS(composite) peer at 58.7 (Δ 1.0 vs this state); lower Life Score · grade A- vs this page's TOP · BALANCED · FLOOR/MID.

Oklahoma

ABS(composite) peer at 58.5 (Δ 1.2 vs this state); lower Life Score · grade B+ vs this page's TOP · BALANCED · FLOOR/MID.

Alabama (cost pole)

ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 88/100 (Δ 2); cost stamp FLOOR vs this state's FLOOR.

Kansas (cost pole)

ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 82/100 (Δ 4); cost stamp CHEAP vs this state's FLOOR.
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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