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Texas tops list of worst places to live and work in America


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Texas has received the number one spot on a not-so-pleasant list: The top ten worst places in America to live and work in 2023.

While Texas landed at number six on CNBC's yearly America's Top States for Business study, the state scored significantly low in one category: Life, Health & Inclusion. Factors in this category include:

  • crime rates
  • environmental quality
  • health care
  • quality and availability of childcare
  • inclusiveness in state laws such as reproductive rights, protections against discrimination and voting rights

Texas received 53 out of 350 points for its 2023 Life, Health & Inclusion score, giving it an F in its Top States grade and the lowest nationwide, securing its number one spot on the list.

More:Austin drops in 'best places to live' report — again. Here's why.

Texas' low ranking in its Life, Health & Inclusion score is attributed to a lack of inclusiveness, according to CNBC, considering factors such as laws targeting the LGBTQ+ population, voting rights, and the strict abortion ban implemented statewide. Another weakness identified in the study was worker protections.

Another reason behind the ranking is the state's current health care infrastructure, with the nation's highest percentage of people without health insurance and the second lowest number of primary care physicians per capita, according to CNBC. Texas also ranks thirteen in the nation for having high violent crime rates.

Top 10 worst states to live and work

The rest of the states that landed on the top ten worst states to live and work for 2023 were:

  1. Texas
  2. Oklahoma
  3. Louisiana
  4. South Carolina and Alabama (tie)
  5. Missouri
  6. Indiana
  7. Tennessee
  8. Arkansas
  9. Florida

CNBC did mention the boom in economic opportunity across the state. In the overall Top States for Business study, Texas received sixth place, with North Carolina taking the number one spot.

According to CNBC, the best state in the country to live and work is Vermont, with Maine in second and New Jersey in third.

 

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8 minutes ago, WBT said:

Lulz at that top 10.  Yep, no one moves to the sun belt anymore, it's too crowded.

Big “no one wants to move to California anymore” energy here

people move for a variety of reasons. As noted above, Texas is great for employers. It’s awful for the working class and minorities. But the working class has been suckered into believing Texas is full of freedom and low taxes. Ha 

Edited by Js1
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2 minutes ago, gmr548 said:


Lmao, wealthy suburbs have low crime rates. News at 11.

No offense to those who reside there, but I'd hardly call Keller, Colleyville and Little Elm (especially) a wealthy suburb in the grand scheme of the DFW metroplex. Maybe it's their distance from anything culturally relevant that makes them secluded from crime, though? I'd wager a guess the multifamily homes aren't many, as well?

Edited by Longhornsnus
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10 minutes ago, Longhornsnus said:

For every one of these OP about the worst, there is one for the best. Case in point:https://www.visualcapitalist.com/safest-cities-in-the-us/

 

Map_Least-Dangerous-Cities_America_06.jp

There's like 17 people in Fulshear.  Cool, I guess.

Also, quite the red/blue state argument in this map that I'm pretty sure most in DT won't want to touch.

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5 minutes ago, Chuckie Finster said:

There's like 17 people in Fulshear.  Cool, I guess.

Also, quite the red/blue state argument in this map that I'm pretty sure most in DT won't want to touch.

image.png.46075a0e3ebd0e4bd4b478f140ec6b16.png

Did you see this ^^

That said, I know nothing about Fulshear. I guess the perception it's a small town. But that 25k population minimum is probably why the majority of the great plains/midwest is missing from the map.

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7 minutes ago, Chuckie Finster said:

There's like 17 people in Fulshear.  Cool, I guess.

Also, quite the red/blue state argument in this map that I'm pretty sure most in DT won't want to touch.

Also, what is in the water in Mass.? That's the bubble to be in, if you have money and want safety I guess?

image.png.deec228916bdf43964eff192e343fa96.png

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Any list talking about entire states is contardebulated. eg When I moved to Austin in the 90s (when it was still cool,) I didn't give a fuck what was happening 50 miles away, much less in the Pine Curtain or DFW or the Border or out past Midland. And if I'd been in one of those places, Austin wouldn't affect me much at all.

The same goes for smaller states. I didn't see Georgia on that list, so I guess it's considered "good." Me I'd like actual Atlanta, but the massive burbs are Karen-infested traffic jams driving past identical scenery like in a Flintstones cartoon. The southern half of the state is cool if you like long drives in the country, which I do, but they ain't much else. 

Anyway, wherever you live, you stake out a small kingdom of home, work, and recreation and you ignore the rest. For most metros you ought to be able to find some civilization.

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Meh.  Not gonna comment on politics.  But name a metro that is as diverse as Houston in this country where you can buy a fat house for 400k? Texas is a pro business state so it will continue to grow.  

 

 

Personally, weather, scenery and people are important to me so I choose to live in a shack in OC

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Just now, royiv said:

For some it's not being persecuted by your state government. For some it's about having bodily autonomy. For some it's about having access to quality education. For some it's having access to quality healthcare. Those are all areas where Texas comes up short and continues to slide down the list.

There's still a lot of good things about this state, but I'm afraid we're ignoring the canary in the coal mine. On a lot of very important metrics, we are slipping fast and eventually that's going to have some very real negative implications to the machine that has been the Texas economy.

Why don't you ask young people with high earning potential if they are willing to take a job in Texas.  The percentage who would say "yes" is falling off the cliff.  There are plenty of good paying jobs elsewhere for such people, and some/many of the factors you listed play heavily in their decisionmaking.

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20 minutes ago, RDCanecutter said:

Any list talking about entire states is contardebulated. eg When I moved to Austin in the 90s (when it was still cool,) I didn't give a fuck what was happening 50 miles away, much less in the Pine Curtain or DFW or the Border or out past Midland. And if I'd been in one of those places, Austin wouldn't affect me much at all.

The same goes for smaller states. I didn't see Georgia on that list, so I guess it's considered "good." Me I'd like actual Atlanta, but the massive burbs are Karen-infested traffic jams driving past identical scenery like in a Flintstones cartoon. The southern half of the state is cool if you like long drives in the country, which I do, but they ain't much else. 

Anyway, wherever you live, you stake out a small kingdom of home, work, and recreation and you ignore the rest. For most metros you ought to be able to find some civilization.

Been reading about trans people wanting to leave Austin because......it's in Texas. 

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Just now, Brisketexan said:

Why don't you ask young people with high earning potential if they are willing to take a job in Texas.  The percentage who would say "yes" is falling off the cliff.  There are plenty of good paying jobs elsewhere for such people, and some/many of the factors you listed play heavily in their decisionmaking.

So true. My niece left Texas for college and she's never coming back. She is extremely bright, was born and raised in Austin and has zero intentions of ever moving back to this state. 

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8 minutes ago, closetohumping said:

Been reading about trans people wanting to leave Austin because......it's in Texas. 

I can't speak to that, but I imagine if I'd been lazing at the Crown and Anchor and saw that the legislature was writing anti-RDCanecutter bills, I mighta moved on.

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1 hour ago, gmr548 said:

I’m not saying we should all just be happy with the state of things because we’re not Louisiana. 

Yet.

We are about to have the same porn laws as Louisiana come September 1st - Texans will either have to present a government-issued ID to look at online porn, or use a VPN when looking at online porn.  Our state literally looked at Louisiana's porn laws and said "yeah, we want that!"

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19 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Why don't you ask young people with high earning potential if they are willing to take a job in Texas.  The percentage who would say "yes" is falling off the cliff.  There are plenty of good paying jobs elsewhere for such people, and some/many of the factors you listed play heavily in their decisionmaking.

I would read this survey and find it interesting, if you had a link.

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1 minute ago, Brisketexan said:

And various things that Mississippi has done.  And Florida.  Seriously, as a state, we are LITERALLY saying "we want to be more like Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida."  What sane fucking place fucking says that?  NONE.  No sane place says that.

As long as we ain't like commiefornia.  *spits out tobacky juice. 

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11 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

Yet.

We are about to have the same porn laws as Louisiana come September 1st - Texans will either have to present a government-issued ID to look at online porn, or use a VPN when looking at online porn.  Our state literally looked at Louisiana's porn laws and said "yeah, we want that!"

Not to derail this, but I think our state looked at Louisiana and said "we want that" because free, unadulterated and lightning fast access to every form of pornography, from the basic vanilla to the most perverse, being available at the fingertip of every 5-17 year olds (or wherever the legal consent/age is) is not only passively unhealthy, but extremely and actively detrimental to the development of the brain (and emotional and mental health) of still-developing children. It's a problem, whether you want to acknowledge the studies or not. Especially our young men.

And since when, anyways, did we as a society come to expect and feel entitled to free pornography carte blanche? I mean, up until the mid 2000's you had to pay for it and ostensibly verify ID, or worse yet, go to a seedy sex store and buy a physical copy. But Russia and Eastern Europe starts pumping out free porn and we get used to it and now it's as sacrosanct as a constitutional right for some people, it seems.

If you make it harder to view online free porn and make it harder to buy guns, I think you can probably wipe out about 80% of the incel community overnight.

Edited by Longhornsnus
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7 minutes ago, closetohumping said:

As long as we ain't like commiefornia.  *spits out tobacky juice. 

*slight derail* I know the trope about Californians moving to Texas, but just anecdotally, I see Florida plates all over Texas now and wonder if it's related to the home insurance crisis going on in Meatballistan. 

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Texas sucks so bad...

and people can't fucking stay away.  They are literally dying to get here.

Fuck the haters.  and fuck the people who willfully ignore the challenges Texas faces and overcomes.

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19 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

And various things that Mississippi has done.  And Florida.  Seriously, as a state, we are LITERALLY saying "we want to be more like Louisiana, Mississippi, and Florida."  What sane fucking place fucking says that?  NONE.  No sane place says that.

Oh you're getting a militia alright,  by god! you're getting a militia.

California Florida Über Alles

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No offense to those who reside there, but I'd hardly call Keller, Colleyville and Little Elm (especially) a wealthy suburb in the grand scheme of the DFW metroplex. Maybe it's their distance from anything culturally relevant that makes them secluded from crime, though? I'd wager a guess the multifamily homes aren't many, as well?

I mean, my point was that the entire list was suburbs. Those in Texas aren’t Southlake or Sugar Land but they’ve also got median incomes mostly above the metro averages.

Beyond that, Texas had five little towns on the list, compared to dozens in New England. It does not read ti me that TX is #1 as you implied (not that I put a ton of weight on it in general)
For some it's not being persecuted by your state government. For some it's about having bodily autonomy. For some it's about having access to quality education. For some it's having access to quality healthcare. Those are all areas where Texas comes up short and continues to slide down the list.
There's still a lot of good things about this state, but I'm afraid we're ignoring the canary in the coal mine. On a lot of very important metrics, we are slipping fast and eventually that's going to have some very real negative implications to the machine that has been the Texas economy.

I largely agree. I do think it will take a while to materialize in terms if economic impact. Texas isn’t going to stop having very friendly policies for large corporations and as long as they can import workers to TX they are going to do so. Until that changes, the growth feedback loop remains in tact.
Yet.
We are about to have the same porn laws as Louisiana come September 1st - Texans will either have to present a government-issued ID to look at online porn, or use a VPN when looking at online porn.  Our state literally looked at Louisiana's porn laws and said "yeah, we want that!"

Where the state really seems determined to copy Louisiana is education. The continuous push for vouchers is an effort to achieve de facto segregation with private religious schools almost exclusively for whites kids and grossly underfunded public schools for kids of color - AKA what Louisiana has today.
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Meh.  Not gonna comment on politics.  But name a metro that is as diverse as Houston in this country where you can buy a fat house for 400k? Texas is a pro business state so it will continue to grow.  
 
 
Personally, weather, scenery and people are important to me so I choose to live in a shack in OC
That is in the stix or the hood...The cost of living is really all that Texas has to offer and that disappearing quickly. Yes, it's cheaper then say NYC, SF or LA but it's climbing. I just rented an apartment in Houston for my daughter, and it's 2100 a month. Crazy and as mentioned, the heat is just too much. It was 85 the other night at 10 with a heat index of 105.

No thanks, so glad I moved
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