Oregon has a reputation for rugged coastlines, old-growth forests, and a fiercely independent spirit, so it might sting a little to hear the state ranked No. 47 out of 50 in ConsumerAffairs’ 2025 Best States to Move To list. That result sparked plenty of conversation among people who live here and love it, and also among those weighing whether to make the move.
Before anyone packs up or unpacks a single box, though, it helps to understand exactly what that number measures, what it misses, and what locals say the rankings simply cannot capture about life in Oregon.
The No. 47 result belongs to 2025
Back in 2025, ConsumerAffairs published its annual Best States to Move To list, and Oregon came in at No. 47 out of 50. That placed it fourth from the bottom in a composite ranking that also broke down individual categories: Oregon ranked No. 47 for affordability, No. 37 for economy, and No. 10 for quality of life.
The Oregon Legislative Republican Caucus August 2025 update reported these figures, and they quickly circulated in local and state media.
A ranking of No. 47 overall does not mean Oregon finished 47th in every measured category. The quality-of-life result alone shows how much the component scores can diverge from one another.
These are reported ranks within one publisher’s framework, not a universal verdict on whether Oregon is a good or bad place to live.
One more thing worth knowing: ConsumerAffairs has since released a 2026 edition of the same ranking. Oregon appears among the 10 lowest-ranked states in that newer list, though the research behind this article does not establish an exact position in the 2026 results.
Treat the No. 47 figure as a 2025 snapshot, not the current standing.
What ConsumerAffairs measures now
Understanding how ConsumerAffairs builds its list matters before drawing conclusions from it. According to ConsumerAffairs’ current Best States to Move To methodology, the ranking combines five categories: affordability, safety, economic strength, healthcare and education, and quality of life.
Affordability and safety each carry 25 points, making them the heaviest factors. Economic strength accounts for 20 points, while healthcare and education and quality of life each contribute 15 points.
For economic strength specifically, the current methodology looks at measures including job growth over a defined period, poverty rates, and unemployment. Those details apply to the 2026 edition as it stands today, and they should not be read backward as an explanation of how the 2025 calculation worked.
That distinction matters for honest interpretation. A ranking reflects its publisher’s chosen measures and the weight assigned to each one.
Swap those weights or swap those measures, and the order of states changes. No composite index captures everything about a place, and knowing the recipe helps readers decide how much the result should influence their own thinking.
Statewide cost figures need local context
Oregon’s statewide housing and income numbers give a useful starting point, but they flatten a lot of real variation. Census QuickFacts reports a 2020-2024 statewide median owner-occupied home value of $477,600 and a median household income of $83,011 for Oregon.
Those figures describe the middle of the statewide distribution, not the price you will encounter in any specific city or county.
A separate measure from the federal government adds more texture. The Bureau of Economic Analysis calculated Oregon’s 2024 Regional Price Parity at 104.7, meaning Oregon’s overall measured price level ran about 4.7% above the national average that year.
The BEA describes Regional Price Parities as comparisons of regional price levels across states and metro areas, not as a complete accounting of any household’s actual expenses.
These three figures, home values, household income, and regional price parity, are distinct measures with different sources and scopes. ConsumerAffairs’ current affordability formula, for its part, combines regional price parity, housing costs as a share of income, household income, and state tax collections per capita.
None of these numbers substitutes for a personal budget built around a specific job offer, neighborhood, and lifestyle.
Employment figures depend on the period and industry
Oregon’s job market drew attention in 2025, and the numbers behind that conversation are worth reading carefully. A state economist reported that revised payroll data showed total nonfarm employment fell by 22,800 jobs, or 1.1%, from December 2024 to December 2025.
That is a meaningful statewide result covering a specific 12-month period, and it came after the 2025 ConsumerAffairs ranking was published.
The economy rank Oregon received in the 2025 list, No. 37, reflected whatever employment data the publisher used at that time. The later payroll decline is useful context for anyone evaluating Oregon’s current labor market, but it describes a different period and should not be treated as the data behind the earlier ranking.
Sector-level trends also tell a more varied story. Oregon’s job-growth data for January 2024 through January 2025 identified private education and health services among the faster-growing sectors.
A statewide annual decline does not mean every industry or every region contracted at the same rate, and anyone targeting a specific occupation or metro area should look at sector-specific and local data rather than relying on a single statewide figure.
The quality-of-life rank tells a different part of the story
Oregon’s No. 10 quality-of-life rank in the same 2025 ConsumerAffairs list deserves a moment in the spotlight. While the overall position of No. 47 drew most of the headlines, that single composite number does not describe every piece of the ranking.
Quality of life landed in the top 10, which sits in a very different part of the table from the overall result.
That gap is a reminder of how composite rankings work. A strong finish in one category can coexist with weaker results in others, and the overall number reflects the weighted combination, not any single dimension.
The reported 2025 category ranks make clear that Oregon’s standing varies considerably depending on which factor you examine.
Acknowledging a No. 10 quality-of-life result is not a way to dismiss the affordability or economy concerns. Those ranks are real, and they carry weight in the composite score.
The point is that a bottom-five overall position can obscure genuinely strong performance in categories that matter a great deal to people deciding where to build a life.
Surveyed residents name reasons they value Oregon
Survey data offers a window into what draws some residents to stay, even when cost pressures are real. Travel Oregon’s 2023 resident sentiment survey asked Oregonians to identify reasons they value living in the state.
Among the commonly selected responses: landscape and natural features came in at 59%, proximity to friends and family at 57%, climate and weather at 49%, and summer recreation at 48%. The Travel Oregon Resident Sentiment 2023-24 Final Report presents these as responses from surveyed participants, not as the unanimous opinion of every person living in the state.
Moving-company data adds another dimension to the picture. United Van Lines reported in its 2025 National Movers Study that Oregon recorded the highest inbound share among states it tracked, at 65%.
That figure covers moves handled by United Van Lines among states with at least 250 recorded moves, and it is not a Census Bureau estimate of net migration or a count of all people relocating.
Taken together, these data points complicate any simple narrative about Oregon being a state people are fleeing. They do not erase the affordability pressures, but they do suggest that the reasons people stay, or arrive, extend well beyond what a composite ranking can measure.
Use the ranking as a starting point, not a decision
A composite ranking can point you toward questions worth asking, but it cannot answer them for you. Oregon’s 2025 No. 47 result reflects one publisher’s formula applied to statewide averages.
ConsumerAffairs’ current ranking and the Census statewide figures are reasonable starting points for research, but neither tells you what housing costs in the specific town you are considering, whether your industry is hiring in that region, or how the tradeoffs stack up against your own priorities.
The most useful move is to treat a low overall rank as a prompt, not a verdict. Compare your actual budget against local housing data, check sector-specific job trends for your field, and weigh the quality-of-life factors that matter most to your household.
Oregon is a state where the numbers can look very different depending on where you land within it. The ranking is a conversation starter, and the conversation worth having is the one about your own situation.
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