What Are the Most Inclusive U.S. States and Countries?
Every year, the Othering & Belonging Institute (OBI) releases an updated ranking of the most (and the least) inclusive states in the U.S. and countries in the world. For the sixth consecutive year in a row, Hawaii is the most inclusive state in the United States, according to OBI’s latest Inclusiveness Index.
Maryland and Vermont snagged the No. 2 and 3 spots respectively. Meanwhile, Louisiana is at the bottom of the rankings for the third consecutive year, followed by Mississippi and Alabama, two other consistently poor performers.
Top 10 Most Inclusive States in the U.S.
1. Hawaii
2. Maryland
3. Vermont
4. California
5. Nevada
6. Delaware
7. Colorado
8. Rhode Island
9. Virginia
10. New Hampshire
In 2016, OBI started publishing the Inclusiveness Index to rank U.S. states and countries by their levels of inclusion using a number of indicators. The Index examines inclusivity in terms of race, religion, gender (sex), sexual orientation, disability, and the general population using several measures. Those measures include outgroup violence; political representation; income inequality; anti-discrimination laws; rates of incarceration; and immigration/asylum policies.
The results of this year’s U.S. state rankings are similar to past years, where some states may gain or drop a couple of positions, but for the most part, they have remained in the same category since OBI launched this project.
One thing that has changed this year is that the Index now includes an indicator for a country’s response to the climate crisis by considering its change in greenhouse gas emissions, including land use, land-use change, and forestry. This measure applies only to the global rankings, which also include refugee and immigration policies. So, a country’s ranking is better if it is more welcoming the country is in terms of openness to refugees and immigrants.
Globally, the 2023 rankings are also comparable to past years, with New Zealand coming in first place for the second consecutive year. Portugal recorded its best showing yet by coming in second place (up from 5th place in 2022), followed by the Netherlands in third place.
The Netherlands had dominated the global rankings list since its launch until Sweden took over the top spot in 2020. Sweden ranked 7th in this year’s index. New Zealand and Northern European countries known for their strong social safety net programs regularly rank high.
Top 10 Most Inclusive Countries
1. New Zealand
2. Portugal
3. Netherlands
4. Slovenia
5. Iceland
6. Norway
7. Sweden
8. Malta
9. Canada
10. Luxembourg
This year’s rankings placed Iran at the bottom of the global list. Yemen, which has been devastated by the Saudi-led invasion that began in 2015, followed by the Comoros Islands, a former French colony located off the southeastern coast of Africa, rounded out the bottom of the list.
The United States, as with all past rankings, placed in the middle, but has slowly been falling in the ranking. It was in the 72nd place in the 2022 and 2021 rankings but slipped to the 77th spot this year. The US typically performs well on inclusion in terms of disability, LGBTQ, and religion, but ranks poorly on race, gender, and incarceration rates.
The number of countries included in the Inclusiveness Index changes each year based on the availability of data. This year’s index included 129 countries. That’s seven less than the previous year.
You can check out the full rankings of the Inclusiveness Index via OBI’s new interactive table that allows users to switch between states and countries and sort them based on any of the measures considered in the rankings.
There is also a filter to select between years, however, only the past three years are currently available. Past reports from 2016 through 2020 are still available on the page as PDFs.
