The top three states for physicians to practice medicine this year are in the Midwest and the worst are on the East Coast, according to one new ranking.
The rankings for 2022 come from Wallethub, which looked at two key dimensions: opportunity and competition (70 points) and medical environment (30 points).
Eleven metrics make up the opportunity and competition score, including physicians' annual wages and starting salary, hospitals per capita and insured rate. Medical environment is defined by eight factors, including physician assistants per capita, quality of the public health system and hospitals' safety grades as defined by Leapfrog.
Some insights into the rankings and scores:
- South Dakota ranks No. 1 overall, coming in seventh place for opportunity and competition and 22nd place for medical environment, respectively.
- Nebraska came in top place for its medical environment, but its ranking as 34th for opportunity and competition dragged its overall ranking down to No. 7.
- Indiana came in top place for opportunity and competition, but its ranking as 17th for medical environment dragged its overall ranking down to No. 19.
- Delaware is ranked last for its medical environment, and Washington, D.C., and Massachusetts are ranked in the last spots for physicians' opportunity and competition.
- Below are the top 15 states and bottom 15 states, including Washington, D.C. The complete ranking and scoring can be found here.
The best
1. South Dakota
2. Minnesota
3. Wisconsin
4. Montana
5. Idaho
6. Iowa
7. Nebraska
8. Kansas
9. North Dakota
10. Mississippi
11. Arizona
12. Alabama
13. Tennessee
14. Maine
15. Utah
The worst
35. Arkansas
36. California
37. New Hampshire
38. New Mexico
39. Illinois
40. Maryland
41. Connecticut
42. Oregon
43. Massachusetts
44. Vermont
45. Hawaii
46. Alaska
47. New Jersey
48. Delaware
49. Washington, D.C.
50. New York
51. Rhode Island