BATON ROUGE, La. — Louisiana has improved on nine of 30 quality-of-life measures tracked in a new nonpartisan report, but the state continues to rank near the bottom nationally in several key areas, according to the State of the States Report 2026 released by Leaders for a Better Louisiana and the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana (PAR).
The report, produced by the bipartisan State of the Nation Project at Tulane University’s Murphy Institute, evaluates states across a range of indicators including education, economic performance, health, poverty, violence and civic engagement.
Based on 2023 and 2024 data, the report compares Louisiana’s performance against national benchmarks and tracks changes over time.
Among its findings, Louisiana continues to face challenges related to inequality, educational attainment, environmental conditions, workforce participation, productivity and violence. The report found the state ranks near the bottom nationally in several workforce measures, including prime-age employment-to-population ratio, labor force participation and hourly earnings growth.
At the same time, Louisiana performed comparatively better in areas such as life satisfaction, civil liberties, economic output and mental health.
Education results were mixed, according to the report. Louisiana has shown improvement in student math and reading test scores, but overall educational attainment among residents remains below national levels.
The report also identified volunteerism, youth depression, adult depression and academic achievement as areas where Louisiana is improving faster, or declining more slowly, than the nation overall.
Dr. Steven Procopio, president of PAR Louisiana, said the report is intended to provide policymakers and residents with objective benchmarks to evaluate the state’s progress.
“Louisiana will not solve its biggest challenges by guessing at solutions or chasing anecdotes,” Procopio said. “We need trustworthy data, clear benchmarks and an honest understanding of where we stand.”
Adam Knapp, chief executive officer of Leaders for a Better Louisiana, said the report offers a bipartisan assessment of the state’s standing compared with other states.
“While some of the trends are encouraging, we hope the structural challenges revealed in the report will create a sense of urgency for leaders to improve our state’s outcomes,” Knapp said.
Leaders for a Better Louisiana and PAR are serving as local partners to distribute the findings to policymakers, civic organizations and the public.
The State of the Nation Project is a bipartisan initiative housed at Tulane University’s Murphy Institute. Its board includes scholars affiliated with institutions including the Brookings Institution, the American Enterprise Institute, Johns Hopkins University, Princeton University, Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and the University of Pennsylvania.
PAR Louisiana is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research and civic engagement organization founded in 1950. Leaders for a Better Louisiana was formed through the merger of the Committee of 100 and the Council for a Better Louisiana and focuses on economic and civic development initiatives across the state.