Most Iowans won’t be all that surprised to learn that a national analysis conducted for U.S. News & World Report concludes that the Hawkeye State is a mighty good place to call home. Most of us already view it as superb on that dimension.

During the course of each year, the magazine publishes ranking analyses on a wide range of topics. It has just announced the findings of its comparison of the 50 American states and released its “Best States” rankings. In reaching their conclusions, the researchers looked at seven categories: education, health care, government, infrastructure, economy, opportunity and crime and corrections. According to information provided about the study, 68 metrics were used and a vast amount of data analyzed.

Iowa’s overall ranking was the No. 6 “Best State” in the nation. That’s solid evidence that a great many things are going quite well in our state. Impressively, Iowa placed No. 1 in the nation in several categories including health care affordability, high school graduation rate and power grid reliability and near the top of the list in others.

The Messenger welcomes this analytic confirmation that the high opinion most of us have of our home state is based on more than boosterism. It’s good to know that objective observers also conclude that Iowa is doing very well indeed.