Cashing In
Texas cashes in among top-10 best U.S. state economies in 2026 report
Texas maintains its ranking as the 8th best state economy.
A new study gauging the success or decline in economic performance in every state has revealed Texas' economy remains stable in 2026 after it dropped out of the top five to No. 8 last year.
Texas boasts the No. 8 best state economy in the U.S. this year, according to WalletHub's annual "Best & Worst State Economies" report. The personal finance website's analysts ranked all 50 states and the District of Columbia across 28 relevant metrics to measure each state's economic activity and health status, and its "innovation potential."
Notably, Texas leads the nation for the most exports per capita in the U.S. in a five-way tie with Louisiana, Kentucky, North Dakota, and Indiana. Across the study's three main categories, Texas ranked highly for its economic activity (No. 7) and economic health (No. 11), and the state's "innovation potential" rank is the 24th best in the nation.
This is how WalletHub ranked Texas' economic performance, where No. 1 is considered the best and No. 25 is considered average:
- No. 6 – Change in non-farm payrolls
- No. 8 – Change in GDP
- No. 8 – Startup activity
- No. 11 – Annual median household income
- No. 18 – Government surplus/deficit per capita
- No. 21 – Percentage of jobs in high-tech industries
- No. 30 – Unemployment rate
"U.S. economic growth depends heavily on the performance of individual states, and some contribute more than others," the report's author wrote. "For example, California, Texas, New York and Florida have economies so large that if they were countries, they would rank in the top 20 in the world."
The five states with the worst state economies in 2026 are Rhode Island (No. 47), Maine (No. 48), Louisana (No. 49), Kentucky (No. 50), and West Virginia (No. 51).
The top 10 best state economies for 2026 are:
- No. 1 – Massachusetts
- No. 2 – Washington
- No. 3 – Utah
- No. 4 – California
- No. 5 – Delaware
- No. 6 – North Carolina
- No. 7 – New York
- No. 8 – Texas
- No. 9 – Colorado
- No. 10 – Florida
