With over 168 million women in the U.S., and over one-third of them skipping necessary medical care because of the cost, the non-profit organization SmileHub has released new reports on the Best States for Women’s Health in 2025 and the Best Charities for Health & Wellness.
To highlight the best states for women’s health and the ones that need to improve the most, SmileHub compared each of the 50 states based on 18 key metrics.
The data set ranged from the maternal mortality rate to the quality of women’s hospitals to the affordability of a doctor’s visit. Three key health dimensions were deployed for the assessment: 1) Health & Living Standards, 2) Health Care Policies & Support Systems and 3) Safety Risk.
The top ten ‘Best States for Women’s Health’ were found to be:
- Massachusetts
- Hawaii
- Connecticut
- New York
- New Jersey
- Maryland
- California
- Minnesota
- Vermont
- New Hampshire
In contrast, tipping to the other end of the scale, the top ten ‘States in Need of Improvement’ were established as:
- Georgia
- Louisiana
- West Virginia
- Tennessee
- Alabama
- Texas
- Mississippi
- Nevada
- Arkansas
- Oklahoma
Delving beyond the headline rankings, the data revealed that Massachusetts has the lowest uninsured rate among women – 7.9 times lower than in Texas, which has the highest rate. Health insurance is important in the U.S. for increasing life chances.
One of the biggest poor health issues is smoking (cigarettes or vaping). Utah has the lowest female smoker rate – 4.3 times lower than in West Virginia, which has the highest rate.
A very different measures is the maternal mortality rate (the number of women who die from pregnancy-related causes while pregnant or within 42 days of pregnancy termination). Here, California has the lowest maternal mortality rate – 4.4 times lower than in Alabama, which has the highest rate.
