Missouri is a Top 5 State for Opportunity in the USA
According to Dictionary.com, opportunity means "a situation or condition favorable for attainment of a goal."
I truly believe that the United States should be a land of opportunity for all, but apparently some states are much better at giving you opportunities than others. According to usnew.com in a ranking of states that give you the most opportunity Missouri finished in the top 5! Missouri took the 4th spot on their list behind only Iowa in 1st place, Minnesota in 2nd place and New Hampshire in 3rd place.
Now how did they decide these rankings well on the site they say that there are three main factors to quantifying opportunity in a state and they are, Affordability which Missouri ranks 5th in the country for, Equality which Missouri ranks 9th in the country for, and also Economic Opportunity which Missouri ranks below average at 33rd in the country. They also say on the site...
"The states were ranked in their capacity for providing opportunities for all their citizens. This included an economic examination, counting income inequality in each state, the median household income of a state’s residents and the percentage of households living under the poverty line. And a measure was taken of the share of households where sustainable food isn’t always available."
Now if you're wondering about where Illinois falls on this list, it comes in at 12th place which is still in the top 25% of the states! Not near as good as it's Tri-States counterparts, but Illinois ranking downfall is really due to the fact that it ranks 31st in equality.
So do you feel that living in Missouri or Illinois has afforded you MORE opportunity than average?