Massachusetts vs South Dakota

Twenty measures that tend to decide a move, side by side. Every figure is the same one the map shows, from the same source.

Massachusetts comes out ahead on 4 of them and South Dakota on 10, but that tally is not a recommendation: it weighs a difference in class size the same as a difference in house price. Read the rows that matter to you.

Bold marks the better figure where a measure has a better direction. Weather, snowfall and rainfall are shown plain, because warmer is not better — it is a preference.