Website ranks Maine America’s 6th best state for women

A woman is seen through a neon "deli" sign as she walks up Congress Street in Portland. (BDN photo by Troy R. Bennett)

A woman is seen through a neon “deli” sign as she walks up Congress Street in Portland. (BDN photo by Troy R. Bennett)

Finance website Wallethub, which cranks out an increasing amount of research on a wide range of subjects, offered a nod to Women’s History Month by crunching a bunch of numbers to determine the best and worst states for women.

Wallethub looked at women’s unemployment rates, poverty rates, voting percentages, life expectancy, percentages of women-owned businesses and insurance percentages, among other things, and factored those numbers into a formula that quantifies what the site feels represents a gauge of each state’s qualify of life for women.

Bernstein Shur attorney Willette Elder speaks to high school students at the University of Maine Law School in Portland. (BDN photo by Troy R. Bennett)

Bernstein Shur attorney Willette Elder speaks to high school students at the University of Maine Law School in Portland. (BDN photo by Troy R. Bennett)

After working through the figures, Wallethub ranked Maine the 6th best state for women to live out of 51 (including Washington, D.C.), finishing 7th in each major sub-category — “Women’s Economic & Social Well-being” and “Women’s Health Care.”

Maine scored in the top half of the country in nearly all categories analyzed, topping out with 9th best finishes in rankings of voting percentage and preventative health care.

Terry Marley-DeRosier, a women's health care nurse practitioner and clinical supervisor at the Mabel Wadsworth Women's Health Center in Bangor, checks the blood pressure of a patient in this file photo. (BDN file photo)

Terry Marley-DeRosier, a women’s health care nurse practitioner and clinical supervisor at the Mabel Wadsworth Women’s Health Center in Bangor, checks the blood pressure of a patient in this file photo. (BDN file photo)

Five of the top 10 states for women are in New England, according to Wallethub, with Massachusetts at No. 2, Vermont at No. 3, New Hampshire at No. 5 and Connecticut at No. 7. (Rhode Island is down at No. 18.)

The top state for women, according to Wallethub’s ranking, is Minnesota.

The states at the bottom of the list? Arkansas comes in last at No. 51, with high numbers of women living in poverty and relatively few women-owned businesses.

South Carolina, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Mississippi round out the bottom 5.

Florida and California claimed the middle ground on the overall ranking, placing 25th and 26th, respectively.

Click here to see the full report.

Source: WalletHub