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State Life Score

Utah

Above-median composite Life Score — grade B-, 53rd percentile of the national corpus.

51.8
Life Score / 100
B-
Grade (curved)
#24
of 51 states
53%
composite percentile

Data updated August 2026

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

The verdict

Utah is above-median composite Life Score — #24 of 51 (51.8/100, grade B-, 53rd percentile). Carried by schools at 98/100; held back most by childcare at 34/100.

53rd
composite percentile
#24
of 51 peers
39th
cost dimension percentile
37th
wages dimension percentile

Life Score shape · MID · SCHOOL-STRONG

Utah at a glance

Utah is a MID-band SCHOOL-STRONG state: schools leads at 98/100 while childcare drags at 34/100 (MID cost · LOW wages). According to PlainCompare's federal Life Score corpus ranking, Utah ranks #24 of 51 states by composite Life Score (highest = #1) and #31 of 51 by cost-of-living dimension score (highest = #1). Methodology.

Where Utah sits among all US states

Composite Life Score vs the 50 states + DC

52 53rd percentile higher than 53% 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%). This entry sits in this band. 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 Utah scores, dimension by dimension

Score Breakdown

Cost of Living Wages Rent Safety Schools Childcare Environment

Dimension Scores

Cost of Living 40/100 (20%)
Wages 38/100 (20%)
Rent 44/100 (15%)
Safety 76/100 (15%)
Schools 98/100 (10%)
Childcare 34/100 (10%)
Environment 50/100 (10%)

Read with Utah

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

Illinois

ABS(composite) peer at 52.0 (Δ 0.2 vs this state); higher Life Score · grade B- vs this page's MID · SCHOOL-STRONG · MID/LOW.

Arkansas

ABS(composite) peer at 52.2 (Δ 0.4 vs this state); higher Life Score · grade B- vs this page's MID · SCHOOL-STRONG · MID/LOW.

Michigan

ABS(composite) peer at 51.2 (Δ 0.6 vs this state); lower Life Score · grade B- vs this page's MID · SCHOOL-STRONG · MID/LOW.

Virginia

ABS(composite) peer at 52.4 (Δ 0.6 vs this state); higher Life Score · grade B vs this page's MID · SCHOOL-STRONG · MID/LOW.

Delaware (cost pole)

ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 38/100 (Δ 2); cost stamp DEAR vs this state's MID.

Minnesota (cost pole)

ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 42/100 (Δ 2); cost stamp MID vs this state's MID.
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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