U.S. News & World Report is out with a new ranking of the 50 states, and the news site placed Alabama near the bottom for 2025.

The annual ranking, which began in 2017, looks at 71 metrics that encompass health care, education, natural environment, opportunity, economy, crime and corrections, infrastructure and fiscal stability.

Utah heads the list for the third consecutive year, largely because of what the magazine calls its diverse economy, low crime and a healthy population. It was followed by New Hampshire, Idaho, Minnesota and Nebraska.

Alabama placed 45th on the list, just ahead of West Virginia, New Mexico, Mississippi, Alaska and Louisiana.

Drilling down into the metrics, Alabama ranked highest at opportunity, placing 26th among the states. It also ranked 29th in crime and corrections. Fiscal stability placed 31st. Infrastructure and natural environment earned 33rd place.

The lowest marks were 40th in health care and 44th in education.

The health care rankings were low given the state’s obesity rate, at 39.4%, and its rate of preventable hospital admissions, at 3,650 per 100,000, much higher than the national average of 2,726.

For education, Alabama ranked higher than the national average in high school graduations, but was dragged down by its math scores and the amount of debt for Alabama students at graduation – $14,147, higher than the national average of $13,720.