Best States for Women’s Health

The U.S. is home to over 169 million women, whose health and well-being are essential to their quality of life and happiness. However, access to affordable health care remains a challenge, and more than one-third of women in the U.S. skip needed medical care because of the cost.

Even though there are efforts across the nation to support women's health, some states provide better conditions for women to thrive than others. In order to highlight the best states for women’s health and the ones that need to improve the most, SmileHub compared each of the 50 states based on 18 key metrics. The data set ranges from women’s life expectancy at birth to the quality of women’s hospitals to the affordability of a doctor’s visit.

If you want to help improve women’s health in your community but don’t know where to start, check out our picks for the Best Charities for Health & Wellness in 2026.

• Main Findings
• Methodology

Main Findings

Best States for Women’s Health

Overall Rank*	State	Total Score	Health & Living Standards Rank	Health Care Policies & Support Systems Rank	Safety Rank
1	Massachusetts	75.80	1	5	7
2	Connecticut	74.60	4	13	2
3	Hawaii	74.43	2	8	6
4	New York	72.02	11	3	3
5	Vermont	70.85	8	1	25
6	Minnesota	69.40	6	7	21
7	New Jersey	68.76	13	24	1
8	California	68.64	10	16	8
9	New Hampshire	68.53	9	11	18
10	Maryland	68.04	12	14	5
11	Washington	65.73	7	15	28
12	Rhode Island	63.39	14	19	15
13	Pennsylvania	63.13	24	10	11
14	Wisconsin	62.94	19	9	22
15	Colorado	62.25	3	21	46
16	Maine	61.52	23	4	29
17	Delaware	59.83	27	27	4
18	Illinois	59.20	22	22	16
19	North Dakota	59.16	17	12	41
20	Nebraska	59.08	18	26	24
21	Oregon	58.90	15	18	38
22	Iowa	58.35	20	25	19
23	Virginia	57.84	25	28	12
24	Michigan	56.52	33	2	40
25	North Carolina	55.82	28	30	14
26	Montana	54.71	26	6	48
27	Utah	54.23	5	40	47
28	South Dakota	54.03	21	23	44
29	Idaho	53.65	16	35	39
30	Kansas	51.86	31	29	31
31	Ohio	51.16	37	17	32
32	Florida	49.65	29	47	10
33	Alaska	46.92	30	20	50
34	Kentucky	46.59	42	31	27
35	New Mexico	46.40	36	34	37
36	Missouri	46.28	39	33	34
37	Indiana	46.07	41	36	23
38	Arizona	46.05	32	46	26
39	Georgia	45.60	35	48	9
40	South Carolina	43.59	38	45	20
41	Wyoming	43.48	40	38	42
42	Nevada	40.76	34	49	36
43	Louisiana	39.22	44	37	35
44	Alabama	37.10	46	41	17
45	Mississippi	34.26	50	44	13
46	Tennessee	33.94	45	43	33
47	Texas	33.89	43	50	30
48	West Virginia	33.84	49	32	43
49	Arkansas	30.80	48	39	49
50	Oklahoma	30.58	47	42	45

Notes: *1 = Best

With the exception of “Total Score,” all of the columns in the table above depict the relative rank of that state, where a rank of 1 represents the best conditions for that metric category.

Methodology

In order to determine the best states for women’s health, SmileHub compared the 50 states across three key dimensions: 1) Health & Living Standards, 2) Health Care Policies & Support Systems and 3) Safety Risk.

We evaluated those dimensions using 18 relevant metrics, which are listed below with their corresponding weights. Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the highest level of women’s health. For metrics marked with an asterisk (*), the square root of the population was used to calculate the population size in order to avoid overcompensating for population differences across states.

We then determined each state’s weighted average across all metrics to calculate its overall score and used the resulting scores to rank-order the states.

Health & Living Standards - Total Points: 45

• Women’s Life Expectancy at Birth: Full Weight (~4.50 Points)

• Female Uninsured Rate: Full Weight (~4.50 Points)
  Note: This metric accounts for females ages 16 and older.

• Share of Women with Good or Better Health: Double Weight (~9.00 Points)

• Women’s Preventive Health Care: Full Weight (~4.50 Points)
  Note: This metric measures the share of women who were up-to-date on cervical and breast-cancer screenings.

• Share of Physically Active Women: Full Weight (~4.50 Points)

• Share of Women Who are Obese: Full Weight (~4.50 Points)
  Note: This metric measures the percent of females aged 18 years and older who have obesity. Obesity is defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as a body mass index greater than or equal to 30.0.

• Maternal Mortality Rate: Full Weight (~4.50 Points)

• Heart Disease Mortality Rate for Women: Full Weight (~4.50 Points)

• Female Smoker Rate: Full Weight (~4.50 Points)

Health Care Policies & Support Systems - Total Points: 35

• Health & Wellness Charities per Total Number of Women*: Full Weight (~4.38 Points)

• Quality of Women’s Hospitals: Full Weight (~4.38 Points)

• Share of Women Ages 18-44 Who Reported Having One or More People They Think of as Their Personal Doctor or Health Care Provider: Double Weight (~8.75 Points)

Note: Primary care providers are specialized in establishing a long-lasting relationship with their patients, and are their medical point of contact. They diagnose, treat and prevent a wide variety of conditions in a way that is tailored to each individual patient. Having a dedicated health care provider, or a provider considered to be one’s personal doctor, is associated with elements of successful health care, such as:Primary care providers are specialized in establishing a long-lasting relationship with their patients, and are their medical point of contact. They diagnose, treat and prevent a wide variety of conditions in a way that is tailored to each individual patient. Having a dedicated health care provider, or a provider considered to be one’s personal doctor, is associated with elements of successful health care, such as:

• Lower health care costs;
• Greater use of preventive services, such as flu shots or mammograms;
• Fewer emergency department visits for non-urgent or avoidable problems;
• Increased patient satisfaction;
• Improvements in chronic care management for chronic conditions such as hypertension and high cholesterol.

• Abortion Policies & Access: Full Weight (~4.38 Points)

Note: This binary metric is based on research conducted by the Guttmacher Institute and takes into account 20 types of abortion restrictions – including gestational age bans, waiting periods, insurance coverage bans and medication abortion restrictions – and approximately 10 protective policies – including state constitutional protections, abortion funding, insurance coverage for abortion, and protections for patients and clinic staff.

• 2 - Most or very protective: the state has most or all of the protective policies;
• 1.5 - Protective: the state has some protective policies;
• 1 - Some restrictions/protections: the state either has few restrictions or protections, or has a combination of restrictive and protective policies;
• 0.5 - Restrictive: the state has multiple restrictions and later gestational age ban;
• 0 - Most or very restrictive: the state either bans abortion completely or has multiple restrictions and early gestational age ban.

• Unaffordability of Doctor’s Visit: Double Weight (~8.75 Points)
  Note: This metric measures the percentage of women who could not afford to see a doctor in the past year due to costs.

• Domestic Violence Support Services per Total Number of Women: Full Weight (~4.38 Points)

Safety - Total Points: 20

• Suicide Rate for Women: Full Weight (~5.00 Points)

• Depression Rate for Women: Full Weight (~5.00 Points)

• Prevalence of Rape Victimization Among Females: Double Weight (~10.00 Points)
  Note: This metric measures instances of rape. According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, 91 percent of rape victims are female, and 9 percent are male.

 
Sources: Data used to create this ranking were collected from the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Internal Revenue Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, United States Mortality DataBase, United Health Foundation, U.S. News & World Report, Guttmacher and National Domestic Violence Hotline.