After coming in at no. 2 last year, Texas takes over by grading well in several areas.

The study from Moneyrates.com points out that Texas has an average income of $45,330 and no state tax, which helps the Lone Star State's standing. The unemployment rate is also low at 4.2 percent, and there's a low incident (2.7 percent) of workplace illness, injuries and fatalities.

The report says the cost of living is also below average. Even though the the wages here are around average, the other factors were enough to put Texas at the top.

Here are the five factors they evaluated and the data sources used:

  1. Average wages. Average annual wage data is from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
  2. State tax rates. MoneyRates analyzed the state tax information collected by the research group Tax Foundation.
  3. Cost of living. Data was sourced from the Council for Community and Economic Research’s Cost of Living Index.
  4. The unemployment rate. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
  5. Incidents of workplace illness, injuries and fatalities. This workplace safety data is from the BLS, which sourced data from employer reports to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the BLS Survey of Occupational Injuries and Illnesses.
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