QoL Rank
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North Dakota

North Dakota has a quality of life score of 68/100 (A, excellent) and ranks #7 of 51 states. Its strongest category is cost of living (84) and its weakest is safety (60). Its top-rated larger counties are Richland County, Stark County, Walsh County.

  • Safety: 60
  • Cost of living: 84
  • Education: 63
  • Quality of life: 64

Key figures: violent crime 247.4 per 100,000 people a year (US 345.2); median rent $954 a month; median home value $249,900; median household income $77,346; life expectancy 77.8 years.

Counties in North Dakota, best first

  1. Golden Valley County 89
  2. Cavalier County 84
  3. Bowman County 84
  4. Eddy County 81
  5. Traill County 81
  6. Divide County 81
  7. Bottineau County 80
  8. LaMoure County 80
  9. Hettinger County 80
  10. Burke County 78
  11. Renville County 77
  12. Pierce County 77
  13. Steele County 77
  14. Sargent County 77
  15. Dickey County 76
  16. Towner County 75
  17. McLean County 73
  18. Pembina County 73
  19. Wells County 73
  20. Richland County 72
  21. Emmons County 72
  22. Nelson County 72
  23. Logan County 71
  24. Grant County 70
  25. Stark County 70
  26. Ransom County 69
  27. McIntosh County 68
  28. Walsh County 68
  29. Barnes County 68
  30. Mercer County 68
  31. Ramsey County 67
  32. Foster County 67
  33. Burleigh County 66
  34. Ward County 66
  35. McHenry County 65
  36. Stutsman County 65
  37. Cass County 64
  38. Grand Forks County 64
  39. Dunn County 63
  40. Adams County 62
  41. Griggs County 62
  42. Morton County 62
  43. Oliver County 61
  44. Williams County 57
  45. Kidder County 54
  46. Mountrail County 53
  47. Rolette County 53
  48. McKenzie County 52
  49. Benson County 47
  50. Sioux County 39
  51. Billings County –
  52. Sheridan County –
  53. Slope County –

Your priorities

Choose how much each category counts toward the overall score. The map, rankings and every place’s overall score update as you go.

About the data

Every county is compared with every other US county, and every state with the other states.

Each measure becomes a percentile from 0 to 100, where 100 is always best. For crime, deaths, disaster risk, costs and commutes, the lowest value is best. A category score averages its measures’ percentiles and is then scaled so all four categories have the same spread around 50, so each counts equally. The overall score is the average of the four. 50 is a typical place, and most land between 35 and 65. Your priorities lets you weight the categories differently.

Grades: A 65 and up, B 55–64, C 45–54, D 35–44, F under 35.

Each category lists a county’s own figures next to its state’s and the US figures. Under the state and US columns, Difference shows whether the county is higher or lower, as a share of that figure (hover for the exact gap). Rank shows where it ranks instead: “ranked 75%” means it does better than 75% of the counties in its state, or in the US. A green arrow or dot means the county does better, red means worse.

Compare puts any two places side by side, counties or states, in any state. The better value in each row is highlighted.

A county gets an overall score only if all four categories have data and at least 60% of the measures are present. Small counties often have suppressed data, and without this rule they rank at the top on just a few numbers. Top 10 lists only include counties with at least 10,000 people.

What’s measured

Limitations

Sources