The U.S. News and World Report recently conducted their annual ranking of every state, where several different aspects of each state were taken into accounts in order to establish a fair and logical ranking. The states are then ranked in each category anywhere from 1st place, to 50th place; and Washington ended up on top overall; #1. While this news report may take a more logistical standpoint, by considering the numbers and facts from each state; do Washington residents believe that this final rank is true?

A survey of 35 participants who live in the state of Washington, from areas in and around Seattle shows that a total of 52% of people enjoy living here, 36% sometimes enjoy living here, and 12% of participants do not like living in Washington. With correlation to the previous statement, 58% of people think that Washington does deserve to be first compared to other states. However, it is important to keep in mind that there are still the select amount of people who will disagree with the overall consensus.

Nathan Hagen, a sophomore at Tahoma High School, describes his opinion on the state’s ranking. While he does explain that he “enjoys living in Washington for the majority of the time,” he goes on to say that he believes that, “Washington shouldn’t be ranked first overall.” Hagen mentions that there are many good parts of Washington, including “Seattle, Bellevue, Mt. Rainer, the coast”, but there are still many factors about Washington that were not explored in the interview. In contrast, Alyssa Meeks, a Junior here at THS disagrees with the statement that Hagen made. She believes that there are many other elements of Washington that can support the “Number 1” ranking. She emphasizes the value of the education and environment here, as well as “plenty of other things that are great about life out here.” Even with two different opinions, however, students are unsure about where Washington should be placed.

But for the youth who do not like it here, could it be that students don’t enjoy living in Washington because of school, relationship issues, and family; or is it just because they don’t like the physical environment here? Sure, Washington may seem better than the other states from an outsiders point of view; but the demographics, culture, and political climate here are completely different factors that have a bigger influence than we may believe.

Washington provides the youth with many opportunities for our futures, a beautiful natural environment, and education, yet those are only components represented on the surface level. Each and every resident in Washington have their fair share of both good and bad experiences here, but the conclusion that the younger generations of Washington do agree with the ranking has been confirmed.