Historical Trends · 2024–2026
The gap between top and bottom keeps widening.
Year-over-year scores for all 50 states using the 20-indicator legacy framework, enabling direct comparison across 2024, 2025, and 2026. The 2026 Expanded score is shown separately.
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States gaining 2024–26
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States declining 2024–26
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Effectively stable (±1 pt)
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Gap, top vs. bottom tier (2026)
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Biggest gainers
Legacy score change, 2024 to 2026
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Biggest decliners
Legacy score change, 2024 to 2026
How the score distribution shifted
Number of states in each score band — 2024 vs. 2025 vs. 2026 Legacy (same 20-indicator methodology)
Note on comparability. The 2024, 2025, and 2026 Legacy scores all use the same 20-indicator framework and can be compared directly. The 2026 Expanded score uses 32 indicators and is not directly comparable to prior years — it's shown in the table below for context only. Scores for 2019–2023 are available as PDF downloads in the Archive.
All 50 States
| Rank | State | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 Legacy | 2026 Expanded | Change 2024–26 |
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