”Survey says” looks at various rankings and scorecards judging geographic locations while noting these grades are best seen as a mix of artful interpretation and data.

Buzz: California’s economy ranks third-best among the states.

Source: My trusty spreadsheet reviewed the best state economies compiled by WalletHub. The personal finance website looked at 28 economic and demographic metrics to gauge business activity, fiscal health and entrepreneurism.

Topline

Ahead of California at the top of the charts were Washington and Utah. Rounding out the top five were Massachusetts and New Hampshire.

The worst economy in the U.S. was found in West Virginia, Alaska, Louisiana, Hawaii and Oklahoma.

California’s economic rivals Texas ranked 12th and Florida, No. 14.

Details

Let’s look at the three factors that built the rankings.

Economic Activity: California ranked No. 1.

California was followed by Utah, Washington, Tennessee and Georgia. The lowest ranks belonged to Alaska, Oklahoma, West Virginia, Vermont and Hawaii.

Rivals Texas was No. 8 and Florida, No. 10.

Economic Health: California ranked No. 31.

Leading the pack were Utah, Idaho, Florida, South Dakota and Tennessee. Lows included New Jersey, then New York, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Mississippi.

Texas? No. 9.

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Innovation potential: California ranked No. 3.

Tops: Massachusetts, Washington, No. 4 New Hampshire and No. 5 Michigan.

Lows: West Virginia, Hawaii, Wyoming, Louisiana and South Dakota.

Rivals: Texas was No. 23 and Florida, No. 33.

Another view

The Philadelphia Fed has its own state-by-state economic strength index that tracks business output. For the first quarter, California ranked fifth with a 10.7% annual growth rate.

Tops: Nevada at 15.6%, West Virginia at 14.6%, Massachusetts at 11.6% and New York at 10.9%.

Lows: Alaska and Nebraska at 3.5%, Kentucky at 3.6% and Mississippi at 4%.

Rivals: Texas was No. 21 at 6.7% and Florida was No. 12 at 8.2%.

Bottom line

WalletHub’s scorecard devotes one-third of its grades to California’s sweet spot — technology.

And the only measure reflecting the cost of living, a California weakness, is tracking state poverty rates — and that’s just 2% of the results.

Postscript

Politically speaking, and defining “blue” vs. “red” states as those who supported President Biden vs. those who did not, the spreadsheet found blue states averaged a No. 21 overall ranking while the red landed at No. 31.

Jonathan Lansner is the business columnist for the Southern California News Group. He can be reached at [email protected]