Sorry, Minnesota: Wisconsin Just Beat Us Again
Minnesota and Wisconsin have plenty of things to argue about, from cheese curds to football teams, but now our neighbors to the east have given us one more thing to fight about. A new national ranking puts Wisconsin well ahead of Minnesota, and as a former Wisconsinite, I have to admit this one stings a little.
Minnesota may have bragging rights in plenty of categories, but once again this year, our neighbors to the east have stolen the spotlight. A brand-new national survey just ranked Wisconsin ahead of our fair state... again!
Let me start off by saying I'm a reformed Wisconsinite. Full disclosure here: Yes, I was born over in America's Dairyland, I went to college there (shout out to UW-Eau Claire!), and it's where I lived my entire life until I met the love of my life and moved to the North Star State back in 2012.
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Now that I've been a fully naturalized Minnesotan for nearly a decade and a half, I've come to realize that I love it here-- I really do. There are MANY aspects of life here in the Land of 10,000 Lakes that can't be beaten anywhere-- including my home state of Wisconsin.
Wisconsin Ranks Ahead of Minnesota in 2026 Best States Survey
But according to the results of the latest WalletHub survey, my home state of Wisconsin has just outranked my adopted state of Minnesota. Say what?!?
It's a true story, and it's all thanks to WalletHub's 2026 Best States To Live In survey. According to WalletHub, the report looked at how each state performed in the following 5 categories:
- Affordability
- Economy
- Education & Health
- Quality of Life
- Safety
Why Wisconsin Ranked Higher Than Minnesota
And when you tally up the responses from those five categories (you can see specifically which data WalletHub looked at HERE), Wisconsin came in ranked third, up a spot from last year, while Minnesota fell to 8th place, down three spots from 2025. Here's the full top 10 list for 2026:
WalletHub's 2026 Best States To Live In
- Idaho
- New Jersey
- Wisconsin
- Massachusetts
- New Hampshire
- Wyoming
- Utah
- Minnesota
- Pennsylvania
- Florida
When you delve into the specific categories, you can see where the Badger State of Wisconsin had a slight edge over the North Star State of Minnesota. For instance, in Economy, Wisconsin placed 10th, while Minnesota came in ranked 32nd.
Meanwhile, in the Safety category, Wisconsin ranked 8th, while Minnesota was all the way down the list at number 26. However, Minnesota ranked 2nd in the category Education & Health, while Wisconsin ranked 10th. And in the Quality of Life category, Minnesota slightly outperformed Wisconsin, 12 to 10.
Keep scrolling to check where each state was ranked in the survey, and after that, to see 10 things people from Wisconsin secretly think about Minnesota!
