CNBC survey mocked after top 10 worst places to live are all red states

CNBC faced a wave of online mockery Monday after releasing its annual quality-of-life rankings, which exclusively placed conservative red states in all 10 spots of the “worst places to live” — even as official U.S.Census data shows some of those states are leading the nation in population growth.Critics quickly took to social media to call out the outlet for what they alleged as blatant liberal bias embedded in its ranking criteria.Counting down from the tenth-worst place to the first, CNBC ranked the bottom ten states as Arkansas, Oklahoma, Alabama, Missouri, Utah, Georgia, Louisiana, Indiana, Texas, and Tennessee.

All 10 states are Republican-led and voted for President Donald Trump in 2024.“CNBC is placing increasing emphasis on Quality of Life, one of the 10 categories of competitiveness in our annual America’s Top States for Business study,” CNBC’s report states.“It is our annual ranking of every state’s business climate, now in its 20th year.

Under this year’s methodology, the category makes up 11.6% of a state’s overall score, up from about ten percent last year. To score the states for quality of life, we use hard data on factors like crime rates, air quality and healthcare.We also consider the cost and availability of childcare, inclusiveness of state laws, and reproductive rights.”The list is a subset of CNBC’s annual “America’s Top States for Business” study.

To determine its “Life, Health and Inclusion” category, the outlet utilizes criteria such as crime rates, air quality, healthcare, and childcare availability.The metric also factors heavily in ideological policies, explicitly penalizing states for lack of protections against discrimination and restrictive abortion laws.“Some states offer exemplary quality of life.

But these ten states do not make the grade,” the CNBC report stated.“CNBC just dropped their 2026 ‘10 Worst States to Live In’ list … and it’s pure comedy,” conservative comment...