Millennials are entering adulthood at a rough moment. They're the most educated generation, the largest generation, and the first generation to make less than their parents. While most people really don't want to hear it, being a millennial is hard! Jobs are slim, money is tight, and much around us is unstable. Still, there are places in the country where it is far better to be a millennial than others.
The team at the website WalletHub did a little recon to figure out where in the country being a millennial makes the most sense (a number they based on a variety of factors including income and voter turnout). The results are pretty interesting.
According to their research, the top five states (District of Columbia included) to be a millennial are:
- North Dakota
- Minnesota
- South Dakota
- Iowa
- District of Columbia
And the five worst states to be a millennial are:
- West Virginia
- Mississippi
- Alabama
- New Mexico
- Arizona
Big millennial strongholds like California and New York, came in at numbers 34 and 37, respectively. You can check out the full rankings here:
Of course these rankings are not a perfect science, and if you ask Business Insider their opinion, they'll get a bit more specific. They rank the five best cities for millennials to live in as:
- Cambridge, Massachusetts
- Arlington, Virginia
- Alexandria, Virginia
- San Francisco, California
- Ann Arbor, Michigan
Moral of the story: You can make a good millennial life in a lot of places, but this generation still has the odds stacked against them.