When people think of New York state, the country’s largest metropolis -- New York City -- often flashes through their minds. Yet there’s much more to the Empire State than the home of the Empire State Building, at least as measured by overall quality of life.
New York sits at No. 3 on LawnStarter’s 2015 Quality of Life Index for the 50 states.
The index is based on six quality-of-life factors analyzed by LawnStarter and borrowed from The Economist -- GDP (economic output) per capita, average life expectancy, divorce rate, unemployment rate, geographic location (latitude) and male-female income equality. The Economist considers these factors to be good barometers for quality of life.
New York excels in three of our ranking categories: GDP, divorce rate and male-female income equality.
“New York is diverse: energetic and alive, mixed with small, sleepy towns; geographically flat in some areas, mountainous in others; home to farmlands, and also the most famous concrete jungle in the world; sparse towns next to populated cities. But it is beautiful and rich in culture everywhere you go,” according to MyMove.com.
For a full copy of the report's methodology and analysis, please email LawnStarter's Chief Economic Research Analyst, Ryan Farley, at ryan.farley@lawnstarter.com.