Reasons Why Montana Ranks Highest For Outdoor Enthusiasts

If you are person who loves the outdoors, then Montana is the best place to be. For a lot of people that live here, being outdoors is a way of life. We know this, but now there are some numbers to back it up.

There are other states that offer plenty of outdoor activities, but Montana outranks them all, at least according to a recent report from SmileHub.org. When it comes to the best states for outdoor enthusiasts, Montana ranks number 1 overall. I spoke with Luke Powers from SmileHub about Montana's ranking and what made us come out on top.

The reasons for our ranking are below with our interview with SmileHub.org.

via GIPHY

SmileHub looked at three key dimensions, environmental quality, outdoor activity access, and economic impact and job opportunities. They evaluated those dimensions using 18 relevant metrics. Montana scored high in a lot of the metrics. According to Powers.

So first for Environmental Quality, Montana ranked eleventh. They are second in outdoor activity access. That is their highest ranking of these key dimensions and the one that carries the most weight, which greatly contributed to Montana being ranked so highly. In economic impact and job opportunities, Montana was 7th. So they rank highly across the board. 

Montana also ranks high for ski areas per capita, camping spots and dark sky areas for watching the stars. Montana's lowest rank was in the price of a fishing license. We rank 37th in the cost of a fishing license. When it comes to Montana's neighbors, here is how they rank overall:

• 4th South Dakota
• 8th Wyoming
• 14th Idaho
• 26th North Dakota

The state that ranked the lowest in the report for outdoor enthusiasts is Mississippi. For more reports like this one you can check out SmileHub's blog found here.