Having a Baby? Maine and New England Are the Places to Be

Maine and New England are known for being great for a lot of things. And according to a new study, that includes having a baby.

Wallethub.com, a personal finance website, published its annual state rankings of the best and worst states to have a baby. Maine was listed as the 15th best state to have a child in. That's a very respectable placement for the Pine Tree State.

Maine finished with a score of 57.73 out of 100. The scoring was based on four categories: cost, healthcare, baby friendliness, and family friendliness. Those were broken down into 31 sub-categories to try and get the most accurate results possible. You can read more about the study's methodology here.

Maine's best ranking was in healthcare, 11th overall. That was followed by a 16th ranking in family friendliness, and a 23rd ranking in baby friendliness. The lowest score for Maine came in the cost category, which was 25th. Imagine that, Maine doing poorly in the cost category. Nobody could have seen that coming.

Overall, these are very impressive results for our beloved state. And as someone who was raised in Maine, I can certainly attest to how great it was to grow up here. And now, seeing so many friends raising their children here, it's clear to me the ranking fits well. No wonder so many young families love the idea of coming here.

Amazingly, Maine was actually the lowest-ranked New England state. As I mentioned earlier, this study was absolutely owned by the region. Here's a quick look at how the other New England states ranked:

1. Massachusetts
3. Vermont
4. Rhode Island
6. New Hampshire
9. Connecticut

Talk about utter domination by New England. There must be something in the water.

If there's one thing you take away from this study, it's that New England continues to be better than anywhere else. It's not my opinion, it's like science or something.

As for the worst place to have a baby, that distinction went to Mississippi. A tough look for the state that is typically finding itself at the bottom. You can check out the entire list here.