How does Alaska stack up in livability?

WASILLA — Alaskans are well aware of the fact that they live in a beautiful, yet harsh part of the world. Long summer days are traded for dark and cold winter months. The state is currently in the middle of a financial downturn.

But how does Alaska stack up against the rest of the United States as far as overall livability is concerned?

WalletHub, a national personal finance company based in Washington D.C. recently released the findings of national study coming up with its “best and worst.” It ranked not only states — 51 including the nation’s capital — but also up to 600 cities, depending on the topic. Covered topics ran the gamut from safety to school to economics to weather conditions.

The firm listed North Dakota as the best state to raise a family. To arrive at a final tally, WalletHub utilized a number of factors including a “family fun,” health and safety, education and child care, affordability and socioeconomics. Alaska ranked 46th out of 51. Nevada, Louisiana, the District of Columbia, Mississippi and New Mexico lagged behind. Specific city listings included Overland Park, Kansas, topping the list followed by Madison, Wisconsin; Plano, Texas; Seattle, Washington; and Freemont, California. The bottom five in order included Hialeah, Florida, Shreveport, Louisiana, San Bernardino, California, Detroit, Michigan, and Birmingham, Alabama.

Looking at the individual factors, the study ranked Alaska at 32 on the “family fun” list, 50 on health and safety, 47 on education and child care, 47 in affordability, and 31 on the socioeconomics scale.

One area where the state fared well was the number of families with children where Alaska placed second only behind Utah and ahead of Texas, California and Colorado which rounded out the top five.

Despite the state’s current economic conditions, the study ranked Anchorage — the only city studied in the 505 total — relatively high among the nation’s most recession-recovered cities. The state’s biggest metropolis came in at 57 overall and placed in the top 10 percent for its economic environment status. One area where Alaska sat in the lower part of the report was overall safety. The study focused on five areas of safety including personal and residential, financial, road safety, workplace safety and emergency preparedness. The state placed 38th out of 50. It sat at the bottom for personal and residential safety, 43 in financial safety, and 32 in road safety. On the upside of that, the state ranked 19th in safety in the workplace and fifth in emergency preparedness.

According to the report, Alaska ranked 45 out of 51 in states with the best schools. That was broken down in the overall quality and safety. Looking at the two categories, the state placed 47th and 43rd respectively.

In a related area, Alaska seems to have some of the best young drivers in the country, according to the report. Encompassing everything from insurance rates to driving environment and safety issues to health-care costs, Alaska’s teens ranked 11th out of 50. The state got good marks for its safety ranking placing 14th overall as well as its teen-related driving laws coming in at 12th overall. New York topped the list while Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Wyoming and Montana rounded out the bottom five.

According to the study, Alaska has the second-highest overall energy costs in the country, bowing to Connecticut. Broken down by electric, natural gas, gasoline-diesel, and fuel oil, the average Alaskan plays 135 a month for electricity — 16th highest in the country; $59 monthly for natural gas — second highest; $88 for gasoline-diesel — 48th highest; but only $50 monthly for fuel oil which came in seventh highest in the nation.

One of the areas looked at was the best year-round weather conditions. The company compared 600 cities across the US including Alaska and Hawaii. Those looking for the best temperature/humidity conditions might want to consider California. Santa Ana, Irvine, Orange and Costa Mesa all tied for first in the ranking.

Surprisingly perhaps to some is that an Alaska city didn’t sit at the bottom of the pile. Duluth, Minnesota, came in at 600 while Butte, Montana, was up the list at 597. The other bottom five did belong to Alaska with Anchorage coming in second at 599, Fairbanks third at 598 and Juneau fifth at 596. Three Alaskan cities also placed in the bottom for the worst precipitation and snow conditions. Juneau, Sitka and Ketchikan rounded out the bottom three.

Contact reporter Chris Ford at 352-2270 or chris.ford@frontiersman.com