This tool compares the 10 highest-incarceration states with the 10 lowest-incarceration states across 9 quality-of-life dimensions — education spending, healthcare, life expectancy, poverty, median income, economic opportunity, child wellbeing, infrastructure, and the overall Best States ranking — using data from six independent public sources whose cited editions were published from 2023 through 2026.
Rankings run from 1 (best) to 50 (worst); the education-spending and healthcare rankings include the District of Columbia, so their worst possible rank is 51. Choose any two states below, or start from a preset comparison.
What the data shows
Across all 20 states in this selected comparison, higher incarceration rates have a strong positive association with worse average rankings across the nine retained measures:
The association between a state’s incarceration rate and its average rank is r = 0.923; the squared correlation is 85.1% (p < 0.001). The standardized difference between the predefined HIGH and LOW groups is Cohen’s d = 3.73. These statistics summarize this selected sample and do not identify a causal effect.
Correlation is not causation: in this selected table, high-incarceration states, as a group, also rank worse on the retained education-spending, health, and economic measures. The comparison does not establish which factors drive the pattern, and shared upstream factors may contribute to both.
The two groups at a glance
- The 10 highest-incarceration states average 896 people incarcerated per 100,000 residents, with an average quality-of-life rank of 38.7.
- The 10 lowest-incarceration states average 292 per 100,000, with an average quality-of-life rank of 12.4.
Where the gap is largest
Average ranking gap between the high-incarceration and low-incarceration groups, by dimension:
| Dimension | Ranking gap | How much worse |
|---|---|---|
| Healthcare | 33.7 positions | 330% |
| Education Spending | 31.9 positions | 394% |
| Life Expectancy | 31.9 positions | 322% |
| Economic Opportunity | 30.5 positions | 305% |
| Kids Count | 30 positions | 286% |
| Poverty | 28.8 positions | 291% |
| Income | 26.4 positions | 200% |
| Best States Overall | 20.9 positions | 140% |
| Infrastructure | 3.2 positions | 13% |
Where Oklahoma stands
Oklahoma incarcerates 905 people per 100,000 residents and averages rank 43.6 across the 9 retained quality-of-life dimensions in this table. Compared with New Hampshire, Oklahoma incarcerates 3.26× more people per capita yet ranks about 38 positions worse on the average quality-of-life measure.
Oklahoma’s rank by dimension
- Healthcare49 of 51
- Education Spending47 of 51
- Economic Opportunity47 of 50
- Life Expectancy46 of 50
- Income45 of 50
- Kids Count44 of 50
- Poverty43 of 50
- Best States Overall42 of 50
- Infrastructure29 of 50
All 20 states in this comparison
Incarceration rate (prison and jail combined, per 100,000 residents) and average rank across the 9 retained quality-of-life dimensions. HIGH = the 10 highest-incarceration states; LOW = the 10 lowest.
| State | Group | Incarceration rate | Average QoL rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Louisiana | High incarceration | 1067 | 45.9 |
| Mississippi | High incarceration | 1020 | 48.4 |
| Arkansas | High incarceration | 912 | 43.9 |
| Oklahoma | High incarceration | 905 | 43.6 |
| Alabama | High incarceration | 898 | 42.3 |
| Kentucky | High incarceration | 889 | 39.1 |
| Georgia | High incarceration | 887 | 32.1 |
| Tennessee | High incarceration | 817 | 36.8 |
| South Dakota | High incarceration | 812 | 20.3 |
| Texas | High incarceration | 751 | 34.9 |
| Utah | Low incarceration | 396 | 13 |
| Connecticut | Low incarceration | 326 | 11.2 |
| Minnesota | Low incarceration | 323 | 9.1 |
| New York | Low incarceration | 317 | 17.8 |
| New Hampshire | Low incarceration | 278 | 5.6 |
| Maine | Low incarceration | 272 | 23.7 |
| New Jersey | Low incarceration | 270 | 8.3 |
| Rhode Island | Low incarceration | 254 | 17.9 |
| Vermont | Low incarceration | 245 | 8.7 |
| Massachusetts | Low incarceration | 241 | 8.4 |
About the sources
- Prison Policy Initiative — States of Incarceration (2024): state incarceration rates with prison and jail populations combined, per 100,000 residents; the basis for this table’s HIGH/LOW grouping.
- U.S. News & World Report — Best States Rankings (2024): the annual overall state ranking built from health, education, economy, and infrastructure measures.
- America’s Health Rankings — United Health Foundation (2024): annual state health rankings.
- U.S. Census Bureau — American Community Survey (2023): official poverty-rate and median household-income estimates.
- Annie E. Casey Foundation, 2026 KIDS COUNT Data Book (published June 8, 2026; underlying indicators largely through 2024): overall child-wellbeing rank and 0–1,000 score. The 2026 index uses a 2019-anchored min-max score, so ranks must not be compared across the methodology break without qualification.
- American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) — Infrastructure Report Card (2024): state infrastructure grades.