The Women’s Equality & Autonomy Index compares all 50 U.S. states across rights, economic security, childcare, healthcare, workplace protections, safety and other conditions that shape women’s ability to live independently and equally.
Current top five states in the published 2026 index.
The index combines state laws and policies with real-world outcomes across 11 areas. It looks at whether women can make decisions about their bodies, earn and keep financial independence, access healthcare, care for family, work safely and fairly, and live independently.
This is not a general quality-of-life ranking. Weather, entertainment, overall tax burden and similar lifestyle factors are not included.
State policy can determine whether reproductive care is available, how much childcare costs, whether paid leave exists, how strongly equal-pay and discrimination laws are enforced, whether an abusive partner must surrender a firearm, and whether women can afford and access healthcare.
Those differences can affect health, career, income, safety and family stability over decades.
The published ranking uses the most recent comparable state-level data available. Small differences in score should not be treated as proof that one neighboring state is meaningfully better than another.
Each area contributes a defined share of the 100-point score. The methodology page lists the specific indicators used within each domain and explains how states can improve.
The tool starts with the published index. You can leave it unchanged or tell it which issues matter more or less to you. Optional must-haves can remove states that do not meet your minimum requirements.
No changes are required. The default setting reproduces the national ranking.
Choose which areas are more or less important. The tool recalculates the weights automatically.
Compare your results with the published ranking and review why individual states move up or down.
A state’s score can change as laws, policies and measurable outcomes change across the areas included in the index.
Changes in reproductive healthcare access, workplace protections, civil-rights law and protections from gender-based violence can materially affect a state’s score.
Closing wage gaps, expanding paid leave, improving childcare affordability and access, and supporting economic independence can move states higher.
Better access to healthcare, stronger maternal and preventive health outcomes, and effective safety protections also contribute to higher scores.
Available sources, weights, scoring rules and known provenance gaps are published. Data years vary because policy changes can be current while health, wage and other outcome datasets require more time to collect and release.