North Dakota Ranks Among Top 10 States to Have a Baby
Are you expecting? Well, turns out it's a good thing you live in North Dakota.
According to WalletHub, North Dakota ranks as the 9th best state to have a baby. The study was based mainly on delivery costs, health-care accessibility, and baby friendliness of each state. While those factors may sound vague, in order to compile the data, 17 key metrics were used to determine exactly how they're measured. Everything from "hospital-Caesarean delivery charges" to "annual average infant-care costs" to "number of pediatricians per capita."
In two of the metrics, North Dakota ranked in the top two in the country, finishing first with the "lowest hospital conventional-delivery charges" and second in "lowest hospital caesarean delivery charges." The state also finished sixth in "delivery budget" rank.
The states ranking better overall than North Dakota were Vermont finishing first, followed by Maine, Connecticut, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Hawaii, Oregon, and Massachusetts. Washington state finished just after North Dakota to round out the top ten. The bottom five on the list were Georgia, New York, Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi finishing last.
So at least on paper, if you're expecting, you're in a good spot for it.