As families look for a fresh start once COVID-19 dies down, the personal finance website WalletHub has released its report on "2021's Best and Worst States" to raise a family.

To determine the best states in which to put down family roots, analyst Jill Gonzalez said WalletHub compared all 50 states across 52 key indicators of family friendliness. Those ranged from median annual family income, to housing affordability and to very varying unemployment rates.

New Jersey did well, ranked as the 7th best state to raise a family. It did extremely well when it comes to education and child care and pretty well in the family fun and socio-economics categories, said Gonzalez.

New Jersey is known for having one of the best K-12 public education systems.

When it comes to the number of child care workers for the number of children, New Jersey also does well. Gonzalez also said there are lot of kids participating in extracurricular activities, community service and volunteer work.

When it comes to socio-economics, New Jersey has the third lowest separation and divorce rate. So Gonzalez said keep that in mind if you're a family who's thinking about moving to the Garden State. New Jersey also has the second-lowest infant mortality rate in the nation.

But New Jersey could improve in its health and safety categories. Gonzalez said COVID-19 weekly positive testing and death rates could be improved in New Jersey. She also said the state could do better when it comes to violent crimes per capita as well as property crimes.

Massachusetts is the best state to raise a family. Minnesota ranked second best followed by North Dakota, New York and Vermont. New Mexico is the worst state to raise a family followed by Mississippi, West Virginia, Louisiana and Oklahoma.

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