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Survey: Florida is 12th-worst state to raise a family

 
A study by WalletHub ranks Florida as 12th-worst place to raise a family based on largely financial measures. The analysis released Wednesday, however, does not incorporate any educational or recreational measures. 
[Times file photo]
A study by WalletHub ranks Florida as 12th-worst place to raise a family based on largely financial measures. The analysis released Wednesday, however, does not incorporate any educational or recreational measures. [Times file photo]
Published Jan. 18, 2017

WalletHub, known for a surplus of personal finance studies, dissects the best states to raise a family in an analysis released Wednesday.

And Florida, with its surplus of retirees and high divorce rate, ends up in the bottom half of the group.

Overall, Florida ranked as the 12th worst state to establish family roots, failing to score better than 27th on any of the 10 largely financial measures used in the index. As a retiree haven, it came in last for percentage of families with kids and had the second-highest divorce rate.

Among some of the other measures of family friendliness by the personal finance website, Florida was 45th in child care costs; 42nd in housing affordability; 40th in both median family salary (adjusted for cost of living) and violent crime rate; 37th in two-parent families; 34th in percent of families below the poverty level; and 29th in unemployment rate.

The Sunshine State's best score: 27th in infant mortality rate.

The survey doesn't incorporate any education or recreational measures.

According to WalletHub, North Dakota tops the list for family friendliness and New Mexico came in last.