Iowa is ranked No. 17 for economy, and has Top 10 rankings for several of the factors used to calculate that metric: labor force participation (No. 10), labor force employment (No. 8) and gross domestic product growth (No. 6). But the state ranks toward the bottom for business environment (No. 46) and for some of the other measures of economic strength: growth of the young population (No. 36), venture capital investment (No. 38) and entrepreneurship (No. 45).

Although Iowa continues to be best known as a farm state, manufacturing has become its largest industry, and many rural areas benefit from the construction of new, large processing and production facilities well outside of city limits.

Iowa's No. 3 ranking in health care is based on Top 10 rankings in child wellness visits (No. 1), health care affordability (No. 2), low infant mortality rate (No. 2), Medicare quality (No. 3), insurance enrollment (No. 5), health care access (No. 5) and health care quality (No. 9). The state, however, ranks No. 37 for obesity.

The magazine said that Iowa's No. 4 ranking in opportunity comes largely from its affordability (No. 3) – especially in terms of housing (No. 2). The state does rank slightly below average in terms of income gap by race (No. 27) and dips down further for income gap by gender (No. 40), it said.

The top 10 rankings in the Best States Ranking are:

1. Iowa
2. Minnesota
3. Utah
4. North Dakota
5. New Hampshire
6. Washington
7. Nebraska
8. Massachusetts
9. Vermont
10. Colorado

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/rankings