(gentle music)
- [Narrator] What is going on everyone?
Welcome back to the World According To Briggs,
and a video about fresh starts.
Every day, people get to the point where they feel
they need a fresh start.
It could be, they hate where they live.
They can't find a job. The environment sucks.
You made a video about your cousin sex (horse whining)
live in the same town?
You lost your job, bad relationship,
whatever the reason, a change of scenery
can be just what the doctor ordered.
As we come out of the pandemic,
people are finding jobs they used to have gone away.
This of course leads to people looking for new jobs
and new cities and in new states.
All 50 states get ranked every year in different categories.
Crime, school, health, affordability,
environment, and opportunity.
Today, we're looking at the best dates for a fresh start.
When you're looking for a fresh start,
you almost always want to have
affordability and opportunity.
And that's what we're looking at today.
States with jobs now and projected to have
some in the future and places that are relatively cheap.
Some of the old dependable states
that have been on this list for decades and decades
have fallen off and have been replaced
by some that you know are doing things right.
And you might not expect them to be great places to live.
All right, let's see what we found.
Number 10, Nebraska.
Yep right in the middle of the country, you have Nebraska.
Nebraska only has two legit cities that, you know,
they got a lot of small ones,
but two really good size ones,
which are Lincoln and Omaha,
but they still don't have a lot of people.
As of the 2020 census,
they only have 1,961,000 residents.
So that's not a lot of people
especially considering they're the 16th largest state.
They have jobs.
They've got a low cost of living
and they also have the National Museum of Roller Skating.
I'm not even joking.
It's in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Swing on by. They'd love to see you.
They are ranked 11th in affordability
and 19th in opportunity.
That's out of all 50 states.
So that's not bad and they're at number 10.
(digital screeching)
Number nine, Wisconsin.
Yeah. Wisconsin has a lot going for it these days.
It's a beautiful state.
The people are amazing.
They've got one city that is, I guess,
considered a bad city in some parts, which is Milwaukee,
but almost the rest of that state is very low in crime.
And really Milwaukee is not bad.
It's no Chicago or Detroit.
It's just compared to the rest of Wisconsin,
it's got some crime.
Milwaukee is actually the home of Harley Davidson.
Well, that's where it was founded.
It was founded in Milwaukee in 1903.
They have some other good cities in Wisconsin
like Madison and Eau Claire.
Green Bay is pretty good too.
It's a little north, but it's still a decent town.
I always tell people this,
one of the best states to move to,
especially if you have a family
because the people here are really good.
Just the environment's kind of nice.
It's very family orientated state.
And if you're looking for a fresh start,
you could do a lot worse.
Wisconsin in affordability is ranked 19th,
and opportunity 14th.
(digital screeching)
Number eight, Virginia.
Virginia has been getting more and more popular
I'd the last decade or so.
It is ranked 35th in size and 12th in population.
So it's got a good amount of people.
Right now it's sitting on 8,654,000.
They gained a little over 600,000 since the 2010 census.
I was actually a little surprised
that Virginia didn't have a higher ranking on this list
because a lot of people are moving there.
They have good high paying jobs and it's a decent place.
Some of their cities are pretty expensive
and that probably messes up their average,
but they have a lot of smaller towns
all over this state that are very affordable.
Virginia has the second oldest college in the United States.
The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg
was founded in 1693.
It's still going.
If you do decide to move to Virginia, keep in mind
it is illegal to hunt wild animals on Sundays
with the exception of raccoons,
which may be hunted till 2:00 AM.
That is a weird fact.
They are ranked 28th in affordability and 11 in opportunity.
Like I said, they've got a lot of good jobs there.
(digital screeching)
Number seven, Indiana.
Indiana is one of the best states this country has to offer.
That is if you take Gary out of the equation
along with maybe a lot of Indianapolis.
It'd be a great place to live.
They have a few other major cities here.
You got Gary, like I said, Indianapolis, Fort Wayne
which is really nice.
South Ben's got some issues, but it's great place to live.
The rest of the state is small towns and rural.
It is a very rural state.
They've one small town called Santa Claus, Indiana.
And it receives hundreds of thousands of letters
addressed to Santa Claus every single year,
each of which is responded to individually.
Yes, the town folk answer these letters.
Indiana's a good sized state.
It's actually ranked 38th.
And when it comes to population,
they've got 6,785,000 residents ranking them at 17th.
In the last decade or so, Indiana has seen a fair amount
of companies relocate to the state and bring jobs.
This normally brings an influx of people
but it really hasn't happened that much,
but it's just kind of strange that Indiana isn't as popular
as it probably should be.
Their affordability.
They're ranked sixth and their opportunity 32nd.
32's not the best
but they're a very affordable place to live.
(digital screeching)
Number six, Ohio.
Ohio is almost like the poster child for the Rust Belt.
You've got cities like Cleveland, Cincinnati,
Dayton, Toledo that aren't the best,
but they're getting better.
The one that's really not getting better is Dayton.
Dayton kind of, yeah, it's just, don't move there.
If you are gonna move to Ohio, look at the Columbus area.
This is a really nice place to live.
And it's got a lot of things going for it.
Cleveland and Cincinnati
are very affordable cities to live in.
And as they get better, which they have been
in the last, I'd say five or six years,
it's starting to be a better, better place to live.
They do have some really nice neighborhoods
in both Cincinnati and Cleveland
and they're nice neighborhoods,
are far more affordable than other states
like let's say New York, Illinois, Texas, California,
even Oregon, Washington.
It's very inexpensive cities to live in
and they're getting better.
So it might be prime for good place to get a fresh start.
The population of Ohio in the 2020 census is
11,799,000 residents,
which they didn't gain that much.
They gained about 2% from the 2010 census.
Not a lot of people are moving there,
so that helps keep the costs down
on both cost of living and housing.
Fun fact about the Buckeye State.
Ohio's Swallowtail Flag is the only non rectangular
US state flag.
I thought that was kind of interesting,
but they are ranked number one in affordability.
In the whole United States, they're number one.
And their opportunity is 37th,
which is almost middle of the road.
(digital screeching)
Number five, Michigan.
Once you get past Detroit and Flint,
Michigan's a nice state.
Even like I've said in past videos,
Detroit's kind of turned a corner a little bit.
They've got a long way to go.
I'm not saying that that place is ready,
move in ready with fresh paint, anything like that.
They've got a long way to go
but they are getting better.
Their downtown is a perfect example of turning the corner.
Go two miles out from downtown,
it's a different story.
Michigan like Ohio didn't gain a lot of people
in the last census in 2020.
They've got just a little over 10 million residents.
And actually at the 2010 census,
they're one of the only states that actually lost people.
They lost 0.6%.
So they don't have a lot of people moving in.
That means prices are gonna be down
on cost of living and housing, which is always a treat.
Michigan has a lot of amazing small towns
that are affordable.
So if you're one of those remote workers,
this may be a great place for your fresh start.
Fun fact about Michigan.
It has about 150 lighthouses
more than any other state in the union.
You'd think it would be like Alaska,
which just has so much coastline,
it's incredible or California,
but no, it's Michigan, because The Great Lakes and all that.
They're ranked number three
in affordability and 34th in opportunity.
So if you could bring a job there,
this is a good place to live.
(digital screeching)
Number four, Missouri.
The Show-Me State doesn't have the best cities
but it makes up for that shortcoming
with really nice small towns and beautiful land.
It's also the birthplace of my favorite president,
Harry S Truman.
Who's your favorite president?
Let me know in the comments section below,
I'm always interested who will people say.
Now try not to say the last one, two, or three, go back.
The ones in history.
What are your favorite presidents? Let us know.
Missouri has little over 6 million residents
ranking them the 19th in population.
This last census they had their
lowest population growth ever.
They only grew by 2.8%, which isn't a big number.
Missouri is a good-sized state with not a lot
of people are actually ranked 21st in total area.
And a friend once told me it depends
on what part of the state you come from.
It's either Missouri or Missoura.
That looks like an I at the end of Missouri to me,
but I could be wrong.
Fun fact: Kansas city has the second most
fountains in the world.
Rome is the only other city that has more fountains
than Kansas City.
How weird is that?
That's why Kansas city one of their nicknames
is City of Fountains.
Missouri is a great state to call home,
if you want a low cost living
and low housing prices, both are pretty cheap.
Their actual affordability is ranked fifth in the nation
and their opportunity as in future growth,
they're ranked 33rd.
(digital screeching)
Number three, New Hampshire.
New Hampshire is known as The Granite State.
And they got that really cool motto
that says Live Free Or Die.
Live Free Or Die. That's a little dramatic.
Don't you think?
How about Live Free or Have To Watch the Kardashians?
New Hampshire is not a big state
but they've got a lot of things going on there.
And that's why they grew by 4.6% in the last census.
They right now have 1,377,000 residents,
which for a state that's actually ranked 46 in total area,
that's a lot of people.
They only have two really legit good-sized cities,
which is the capital of Concorde
and their largest city of Manchester.
New Hampshire is in the most affordable state on this list.
But the opportunities in this state are incredible.
They have jobs, they have beautiful land.
They have decent people and for as good and as beautiful
as the land here, I think their property values are decent.
I think they're a little up there, but they're decent
for what you're getting.
Fun fact about New Hampshire.
They're the only state in the country
that doesn't require adults to wear a seatbelt
in their cars while traveling.
That's a weird thing to be the last
to hold out on, you know.
Don't move to New Hampshire if you like coastline.
They actually have the shortest coastline
in any of the coastal states length of 13 miles.
That's it.
Their affordability is 38.
Like I said, they're not the cheapest on this list
but they're number one in opportunity.
The future is bright for New Hampshire.
(digital screeching)
Number two, Minnesota.
Over the last year or so Minnesota has been getting
a lot of bad press, a lot of bad press.
And it's too bad because this is a beautiful state.
Minnesota has only got one major Metro area
which is the Minneapolis St. Paul Metro area,
but they got some good smaller towns, cities,
whatever you want to call them.
St. Cloud, Duluth are pretty nice.
The rest are pretty much small towns.
I was in one of them just last summer,
Detroit Lakes, stopped at Jimmy John's,
got a sandwich, watched a guy get caught by his girlfriend
while he was at the Jimmy John's with another girl.
That was interesting.
It's never a good idea to date two people
at the same time in a small town,
that's like the second rule of dating right behind.
Don't date her sister.
Minnesota has never had a census
where they didn't grow by at least 6%.
This last one, they grew by 7.6%
which brought them up to 5,706,000 residents.
Fun fact: Roseville, Minnesota is the home
of the original Target store.
Yeah Target that we all know and love.
The first one to open here in Roseville, Minnesota
on May 1st, 1962.
And now my wife wanders the aisles there on daily basis.
It seems like Minnesota is ranked 23rd
in affordability and third in opportunity.
All right, before we get to number one, don't forget,
We have another channel called On This Day.
There's a link down below.
Go by, check it out. Maybe subscribe.
All right on to number one.
(digital screeching)
And number one, Iowa.
Yes, everyone is moving to the center
of the United States it seems like.
We've had a couple on this list
that weren't in the Midwest or Upper Midwest.
Everyone is tired of the East Coast and West Coast.
They're done.
They're heading to the center of the country
where it's more affordable to live.
And since those people are moving there,
jobs are moving there too.
I honestly think in my opinion,
this part of the country in 10 15 years
will be just like the New York, Los Angeles,
you know, Seattle all that San Francisco area
was 15 years ago.
It's moving. The people are moving there.
The jobs are going to be there
and you'll have some wealthier neighborhoods
and bigger cities popping up here as the years go on.
But Iowa, let's talk about Iowa.
I always say Iowa is a pretty boring place.
And actually a lot of people consider it very boring.
That doesn't mean it's a bad state.
A lot of people like a little boring in their life.
They don't want excitement.
Live in Chicago for a while.
You'll look for it.
You'll dream of places like Iowa.
Iowa grew by 4.7% in this last census,
getting them up to 3,190,000 residents
which lands them into 31st spot for population.
And when it comes to total area,
they're actually ranked 26.
Fun fact: Iowa is the only state in the entire country
whose Eastern and Western borders
are formed entirely by rivers.
The Mississippi river on the east side
and the Missouri river on the west side.
Iowa is ranked fourth in affordability
and 12th in opportunity.
Iowa has a future and if you're looking
to change your future,
I think that's probably your best option.
It is a little slow and a little boring,
but like I said, that may be your thing.
(upbeat music)
All right. That's today's video.
Hope you guys enjoyed it.
Hope you got some information out of it.
Thank you so much for watching our channel.
Be nice to each other.