CNBC released its 2026 "10 Worst States to Live In" list on Monday, and every single state on it is led by a Republican governor and voted for President Donald Trump in 2024. Tennessee took the bottom spot. Texas came in second-worst. The rest of the list, Indiana, Louisiana, Georgia, Utah, Missouri, Alabama, Oklahoma, and Arkansas, rounds out a clean sweep of red America that Fox News Digital reported drew immediate mockery from conservative commentators, elected officials, and millions of Americans who have been moving to those very states in droves.
Not one blue state made the cut. Not California, where Los Angeles County has shed roughly 300,000 residents since 2020. Not New York, where a Citizens Budget Commission study found the city continues to hemorrhage domestic residents. Not Illinois, not Oregon, not any of the progressive-run jurisdictions where taxes, crime, and cost of living have been driving families out for years.
The question is not whether CNBC's list is biased. The question is how a supposedly data-driven business outlet could produce a ranking this disconnected from the choices real people are making with their feet, and still expect to be taken seriously.
CNBC frames the ranking as part of its 20th annual "America's Top States for Business" study. The network said it is "placing increasing emphasis on Quality of Life," which now accounts for 11.6% of a state's overall score, up from about 10% the prior year.
The criteria sound reasonable at first glance: crime rates, air quality, healthcare, cost and availability of childcare. But CNBC also folds in "inclusiveness of state laws" and "reproductive rights", categories that function less as objective quality-of-life indicators and more as progressive policy scorecards.
Tennessee, ranked dead last, was penalized for its "bathroom law" requiring transgender individuals to use facilities matching their biological sex at birth. It was dinged for a law barring localities from passing their own antidiscrimination ordinances. And CNBC cited a joint resolution signed by Gov. Bill Lee designating June as "Nuclear Family Month", as though celebrating the traditional family is evidence of decline.
Tennessee scored just 64 out of 290 quality-of-life points, the Washington Times reported, while Texas scored 78. Utah, ranked sixth-worst, was penalized for its $7.25 minimum wage, low childcare availability, and air quality. Georgia, fifth from the bottom, was cited for offering "few protections for LGBTQ+ people, making it one of America's least inclusive states."
In other words, CNBC built a yardstick calibrated to progressive values and then expressed surprise that conservative states measured short.
If these states are truly the worst places to live in America, somebody forgot to tell the Americans who keep packing up and moving there.
Media personality Patrick Bet-David pointed out on X that Texas added over 67,000 residents and Tennessee added over 42,000. Breitbart noted that nine of the ten states labeled "worst" saw net population increases in 2025, while California lost 229,100 residents, New York lost 137,600, and Illinois lost 40,000.
The contrast is not subtle. States that CNBC says no one should want to live in are gaining residents. States that presumably grade well on "inclusiveness" and "reproductive rights" are watching their populations shrink.
U.S. Census Bureau data cited in the Fox News report shows Los Angeles County alone dropped from roughly 10 million residents in 2020 to about 9.7 million, losing over 56,000 in a single one-year stretch. Major progressive cities, Boston, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, continue to bleed residents to high taxes, rising crime, and punishing costs of living.
The Washington Examiner observed that in 2022, Florida had 318,000 more people move in than out, the highest net in-migration of any state, while Texas ranked second with 230,000 net in-migrants. Six of the top 12 states for net domestic migration that year appeared on CNBC's "worst" list, and none of the listed states had negative net migration.
As the Examiner's Jack Elbaum put it: "People don't usually act so flagrantly against their self-interest, which is an indication that CNBC's list is incredibly flawed, almost certainly for political reasons."
Conservative commentator Reverend Jordan Wells captured the prevailing sentiment on X:
"CNBC just dropped their 2026 '10 Worst States to Live In' list... and it's pure comedy. Shocking. All deep red, conservative states. But somehow California and New York, with the highest taxes in the country, insane cost of living, and endless progressive policies, didn't crack the top 10?"
Rep. Lance Gooden, R-Texas, was more direct in his own post, ticking off the values CNBC apparently considers liabilities: "If you hate not paying income taxes, law and order, parental rights, smaller government, school choice, the Second Amendment, and criminal illegal aliens being arrested... Here's another garbage list from the mainstream media!"
Conservative activist Robby Starbuck, a Tennessee resident known for leading corporate boycotts against aggressive DEI policies, didn't mince words either. He called the ranking a "bulls*** list that has nothing to do with quality of life for sane people," adding: "It's all predicated on far left BS... Our states all gained population while YOUR state lost a record amount."
Newsmax contributor Chrissy Clark offered dripping sarcasm: "This is correct. Please believe this. Tennessee is HORRIBLE. You definitely shouldn't move here..."
The joke, of course, is that Tennessee's population growth suggests plenty of people are ignoring that advice.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom wasted no time endorsing the findings. He posted on X: "Notice something in common? All led by Republicans, many suffering from California Derangement Syndrome."
It takes a particular kind of confidence for the governor of a state that has lost hundreds of thousands of residents to lecture the states absorbing them. California's tax burden, regulatory weight, and housing costs have made it a cautionary tale for middle-class families. By contrast, recent housing report cards gave top marks to Midwest and Southern states while six blue states earned failing grades.
Newsom's eagerness to amplify CNBC's rankings may say more about his political needs than about the actual livability of Tennessee or Texas.
This is not the first time CNBC's annual study has drawn fire from the right. National Review noted years ago that the ranking system had drifted leftward, giving increasing weight to "inclusiveness" and abortion access over practical economic factors like cost of living. The publication invoked John O'Sullivan's maxim: "Any organization or enterprise that is not expressly right-wing will become left-wing over time."
The 2026 edition appears to confirm that trajectory. CNBC boosted the quality-of-life category's weight to 11.6% from about 10%, and the criteria within that category read like a progressive policy wish list. States that refuse to adopt left-of-center social legislation get penalized. States that do adopt it get rewarded. The result is a ranking that tells you more about CNBC's editorial preferences than about where ordinary Americans would want to raise a family.
Consider what CNBC held against Tennessee: a law on bathroom access that reflects the biological-sex standard most Americans grew up with, a measure preventing a patchwork of local antidiscrimination rules, and a resolution honoring the nuclear family. These are mainstream conservative positions shared by tens of millions of voters. Treating them as disqualifying marks against a state's livability is not analysis. It is advocacy dressed in data.
Fox News Digital reached out to CNBC for comment. The network did not immediately respond.
Strip away the ideological scoring and look at what Americans are doing. They are leaving high-tax, high-regulation blue states. They are arriving in low-tax, business-friendly red states. That pattern has held for years, across multiple data sets and demographic groups.
Los Angeles County is shrinking. New York City keeps losing domestic residents. Meanwhile, Texas, Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama are absorbing new arrivals, families and workers who decided, with their own money and their own moving trucks, that these states offer a better life.
No ranking can override that verdict. People vote with their feet, and the ballots are in.
When a business network's "data" contradicts the decisions of millions of free Americans, the problem is not with the Americans.