CNBC just released its annual state rankings, and the ten worst places to live in America are, in order: Tennessee, Texas, Indiana, Louisiana, Georgia, Utah, Missouri, Alabama, Oklahoma, and Arkansas.
Every single one voted for Donald Trump in 2024. Every single one is led by a Republican governor. Quite a coincidence.
The rankings use a "Life, Health and Inclusion" category that accounts for 11.6% of the overall score. The criteria include crime rates, air quality, healthcare access, childcare availability — and then the ones doing the heavy lifting — "inclusiveness of state laws" and "reproductive rights protections." Tennessee, which landed dead last, was specifically penalized for its bathroom law requiring biological males to use male facilities, for restricting localities from passing their own antidiscrimination ordinances, and for designating a "Nuclear Family Month." Georgia was dinged for offering "few protections for LGBTQ+ people, making it one of America's least inclusive states," as CNBC put it. Utah caught flak for its $7.25 minimum wage.
So what we have is a ranking system that treats the nuclear family as a negative indicator and state-level transgender bathroom policies as a quality-of-life metric. And they wonder why people laughed.
Rep. Lance Gooden, a Republican from Texas, called it a "garbage list from the mainstream media." Robby Starbuck was more direct, calling it "a bulls--t list that has nothing to do with quality of life." Conservative commentator Patrick Bet-David asked the obvious question: "'10 worst states' based on what? The numbers tell a different story." Reverend Jordan Wells put it most cleanly: "CNBC just dropped their 2026 '10 Worst States to Live In' list... and it's pure comedy."
The comedy writes itself when you look at the census data. Texas added more than 67,000 residents. Tennessee added more than 42,000. Georgia and Alabama both posted population gains. These are the states people are moving to — with their families, their businesses, and their tax revenue.
Now compare that with the states CNBC apparently considers livable. The top-tier list included Virginia, Hawaii, Minnesota, New Jersey, Maine, and Vermont. Los Angeles County — the crown jewel of progressive governance — declined from roughly 10 million residents in 2020 to approximately 9.7 million, shedding more than 56,000 people in a single year. New York City posted net negative migration. An estimated $2 trillion in wealth has fled blue states entirely.
Chrissy Clark captured the conservative response perfectly with her deadpan post: "Tennessee is HORRIBLE. You definitely shouldn't move here." The sarcasm is warranted. When the states on the "worst" list are gaining population and the states on the "best" list are hemorrhaging residents, you're not measuring quality of life. You're measuring compliance with a political checklist.
Even California's own Governor Gavin Newsom couldn't resist weighing in, crowing that the bottom ten are "all led by Republicans — many suffering from California Derangement Syndrome." This from the governor of a state that lost a congressional seat after the 2020 census due to population decline. The man whose residents are loading U-Hauls bound for the very states he's mocking.
CNBC scored each state on crime, air quality, healthcare, and childcare — mind you no one has ever mentioned air quality or childcare as a reason for their move. But then they salted the formula with ideological markers and acted surprised when the results came out looking like a Democratic voter guide. When "inclusiveness of state laws" and "reproductive rights" are baked into your scoring model, you haven't ranked quality of life. You've ranked cultural progressivism and called it science.
The top destination states in America are all on CNBC's worst list. The states bleeding population and wealth all made the best list. One of those data sets comes from the U.S. Census Bureau. The other comes from a newsroom that thinks bathroom policy is a quality-of-life metric.
People vote with their feet. The moving trucks only go one direction.