CNBC Attacks SEC States With Its 'Worst Quality of Life' List
Memphis has entered the chat.
Please send your hate mail after reading this one to CNBC reporter Scott Cohn.
The Peacock-owned cable business channel is out with its ranking of "America's Top States For Business," which ranks each state in seven categories and then determines the best state for business.
One of those categories is "Quality of Life." The category figures factors like crime, health care, air quality and the price of childcare. Oh, and because it's a Peacock-property, CNBC also used "inclusiveness of state laws" and reproductive rights in the rankings.
You get where this is going.
Again, go attack Scott Cohn. I'm just the messenger here.
Does Tennessee have the worst quality of life in the United States? The state's population, according to University of Tennessee data, rose by 80,000 people in 2024. (Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)
Here's the worst states for "Quality of Life" in 2025, according to CNBC:
42. Oklahoma
43. Arkansas
44. Alabama
45. Georgia
46. Utah
47. Louisiana
48. Indiana
49. Texas
50. Tennessee
You're reading that right. CNBC says, according to its data that Tennessee has the worst quality of life in the United States.
Cohn points to Tennessee having the third-highest violent crime rate in the United States and rules against the Alphabet Mafia as reasons why the Volunteer State ranked at the bottom of Quality of Life.
Meanwhile, over on the Nashville Reddit page, the locals are furious that Mississippi wasn't at the bottom for quality of life.
"[H]aving been to Mississippi more times than I'd prefer ... I'm pretty surprised that -any- state beats Mississippi for being the, uh, worst at anything," one person wrote.
If the quality of life in Tennessee is so bad, Americans sure aren't getting the message. Since the COVID era, starting in 2020, the state has seen 325,319 more people move to the state than out of it.
So why so low as a state?
Memphis.
Bass Pro Shops At The Pyramid (formerly The Memphis Pyramid) in Memphis. (Photo By Raymond Boyd/Getty Images)
Statista ranks the blues capital as the 9th most dangerous city in the world. At one point in 2023, the Memphis police chief declared that crime in the city had reached a breaking point.
"I don't care if we have the entire United States Army here in the city of Memphis. If we continue to see the same individuals committing crimes, you know, arresting our way out of this isn't possible," Chief CJ Davis told local media outlets.
The states with the best Quality of Life in 2025, according to CNBC:
1. Vermont
2. Maine
3. New Jersey
4. Minnesota
5. Connecticut
6. Hawaii
7. North Dakota
8. Virginia, Nebraska and Massachusetts