--- title: America's Top 10 Brain Healthy States description: The index measures mental health, social well-being, nutrition, and other factors canonical: https://time.com/20458/top-ten-brain-healthy-states/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-03-11T21:35:27.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T06:42:41.245Z article:section: Health og:title: America's top 10 brain healthy states og:description: The index measures mental health, social well-being, nutrition, and other factors og:url: https://time.com/20458/top-ten-brain-healthy-states/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: America's top 10 brain healthy states twitter:description: The index measures mental health, social well-being, nutrition, and other factors twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # America's Healthiest Brain States by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Mar 11, 2014 9:35 PM UTC by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Mar 11, 2014 9:35 PM UTC The latest ranking of states with the best brain health are released, and Maryland gets top bragging rights. The 2014 [_America’s Brain Health Index_](http://www.beautiful-minds.com/AmericasBrainHealthIndex) ranks states on 21 measures, including mental health, social well-being, and nutrition. Maryland is Number One for high consumption of fish–which is linked to better brain health–and low rates of Alzheimer’s deaths, and smokers. The state does not, however, have high levels of religious and spiritual activities, which are factored into the rankings. Here are the top 10 states for good brain health: 1. Maryland 2. Washington 3. Colorado 4. Connecticut 5. Alaska 6. District of Columbia 7. Vermont 8. New York 9. New Hampshire 10. Georgia And here are the 10 worst: 1. Mississippi 2. Alabama 3. North Dakota 4. Louisiana 5. Arkansas 6. Iowa 7. Indiana 8. Oklahoma 9. Tennessee 10. Kentucky Check out more data about each state [here](http://www.beautiful-minds.com/AmericasBrainHealthIndex). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/20458/top-ten-brain-healthy-states/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/20458/top-ten-brain-healthy-states/"},"headline":"America's Healthiest Brain States","datePublished":"2014-03-11T21:35:27.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T06:42:41.245Z","description":"The index measures mental health, social well-being, nutrition, and other factors","url":"https://time.com/20458/top-ten-brain-healthy-states/","keywords":["Mental Health","brain health"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alexandra Sifferlin","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/mental-health/","name":"Mental Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/20458/top-ten-brain-healthy-states/","name":"America's Healthiest Brain States"}}]}] ```