CNBC Roasted For Its Clearly Biased List Of ‘10 Worst States To Live’ In America

With mainstream media outlets overwhelmingly headquartered in America’s deep-blue bastions, it’s hardly surprising when their left-leaning biases come through.

But the recent list compiled by one outlet, which purportedly reveals the nation’s “10 worst states to live in,” stood out for what critics say is a brazenly misleading portrayal of red-state America.

Here’s how CNBC defended its choices:

“Quality of place, especially investing in quality of place, is the top thing you can do for talent attraction and retention,” said site selection consultant Larry Gigerich, managing executive director of Ginovus in Indianapolis, and chairman of the Site Selectors Guild.

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CNBC is placing increasing emphasis on Quality of Life, one of the 10 categories of competitiveness in our annual America’s Top States for Businessstudy. It is our annual ranking of every state’s business climate, now in its 20th year. Under this year’s methodology, the category makes up 11.6% of a state’s overall score, up from about ten percent last year.

To score the states for quality of life, we use hard data on factors like crime rates, air quality and healthcare. We also consider the cost and availability of childcare, inclusiveness of state laws, and reproductive rights. Some states offer exemplary quality of life. But these ten states do not make the grade.

Of course, what Americans consider an “exemplary quality of life” can vary greatly depending on their values.

And plenty of social media critics were quick to point out that CNBC’s values clearly don’t align with their own:

"10 worst states" based on what?

CNBC had "inclusivity" as one of its criteria.

The numbers tell a different story.

2025 Net Migration Winners (on CNBC's list):
⁰• Texas +67,299⁰• Tennessee +42,389⁰• Georgia +27,333⁰• Alabama +23,358

Biggest Losers (none on the… https://t.co/lc2d2pNTRZ

— Patrick Bet-David (@patrickbetdavid) July 13, 2026

Tennessee has no income tax, low property taxes, and more property for the money than most states. How the fuck is it the WORST state to live in instead of California?!

— Arkameedeez (@Arkameedeez_) July 13, 2026

I totally agree…Tennessee is the worst!!

Please tell all of your woke leftist friends what a terrible place it is and that they should never move here under any circumstances.

— Nick Freitas (@NickJFreitas) July 12, 2026

Newsweek reported on the backlash:

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican, called the ranking “nonsense” in a post on X.

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“If Tennessee was really the worst state to live in people wouldn’t be moving there in large numbers, which they are,” DeSantis wrote.

Tennessee’s population grew to more than 7.3 million last year, an uptick of 63,785, according to U.S. Census estimates. The 0.9 percent population growth in the state outpaced the national population, which grew by just 0.5 percent.

Other conservatives also criticized the list.

Tom Fitton, the president of Judicial Watch, a conservative group, referred to CNBC’s inclusion of reproductive rights and anti-discrimination protections in its scoring, writing on X that the broadcaster “says the ability to kill unborn babies and engage in woke racism makes states better to live in.”

Here’s some additional coverage: