Minnesota is Shockingly Not the Best State for Doctors

The medical field is huge in Minnesota since we're home to Mayo Clinic. However, I was shocked to learn that Minnesota didn't rank as the best state for doctors. I thought for sure we'd be number one because of Mayo but no. A neighboring state is actually the one that took the top spot.

Get our free mobile app

WalletHub is the one who did this study. They looked at 19 key metrics and compared all 50 states plus DC. Some of the metrics include annual wage (adjusted for cost of living), the amount of predicted competition by 2028, hospitals per capita, and the "quality of the public hospital system".

Now, Minnesota did still rank really high, we're the second-best state for doctors, so you can't really complain there. But I was so convinced we'd take number one that it was still shocking to me. The neighboring state to take away the number one spot was South Dakota. This also shocked me a little because I guess I've never heard of South Dakota as being a hot spot in the medical field but now we know!

The midwest in general faired really well in this study. The top 5 are South Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Montana, and Idaho. Our other midwest states aren't too far behind except for a few. Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, and North Dakota ranked 6, 7, 8, and 9 respectively.  Then Indiana came in at 19, Michigan at 20, Missouri at 25, Ohio at 34, and Illinois at 39. All of our immediate neighbors, though, are in the top 10 best places for doctors. South Dakota not only took the overall number one spot but is also the state that pays its doctors the most. Maybe that's why they made it to the number one spot.