Robert Elsenpeter

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Our annual pick of the worst states to practice pharmacy in America is back with the 2018 results.

The Top 10 Worst States to Be a Pharmacist

Our annual look at the best states to practice pharmacy, based on everything from salary to robbery statistics.

The Top 10 Best States to Be a Pharmacist

Earlier this month we presented our list of the Top 10 Best States for Pharmacists. Naturally, there are two questions that such an article evokes. First: Did my state make the list? Second: If those are the Ten Best, when what are the Ten Worst states for pharmacists?

Update 2018: Check out this year's list here!

In compiling our ranking of all 50 states, we looked at a dozen variables, ranging from how much money pharmacists make to crime levels to overall well-being. The 12 metrics we used were:

Mean annual wage for pharmacists (the national average was $122,230)

Number of pharmacists per state (there were about 297,000 nationwide in 2016)

Location quotient of the industry (the local concentration of pharmacy techs as compared to the national average)

Pharmacy robbery rates (including armed robbery, employee pilferage and night break-ins-there were 632, nationwide)

Stress (including work-related, family-related, money-related, and health-and-safety related stress)

We looked at each state using these criteria and then gave each state a ranking from 1 to 50, 1 being very good and 50 being the worst. We then compiled the 12 criteria rankings for each state to give that state a total and ranked the states from 1 to 50 based on that final score to give us the 10 worst states to be a pharmacist.

As with the 10 Best list, a lone factor or two rarely swung a state’s ranking. For instance, pharmacists in Iowa ranked number 49 in total mean wage, but that ranking did not stop them from coming in third place, overall. There are other factors to consider, as well. For another example, the average pharmacist in Alaska made more money than anyone in the country, but Alaska appear on this list.

With that scoring in mind, here are the bottom 10 states in our ranking:

Coming in at number 10 (number 41 on the complete list of states) is the Hoosier State. The two biggest factors sinking Indiana to the bottom of the rankings are the population’s overall well-being and the number of pharmacy robberies (there were 71 reported robberies in 2016).

On the positive side, Indiana ranks number two in cost-of-living and ranks highest on this list for number of residents with health insurance-88.6% of Hoosiers had access to prescription medications in 2015.

Arkansas scored dead last on our list for financial savviness and overall crime statistics (in terms of pharmacy robberies, however, they ranked number 16 on the list). Residents of the Natural State are also next to last for overall well-being and in terms of education level, they came in at number 47.

But, the numbers for Arkansas are not all bleak. They are also number five in terms of pharmacy job openings, which is a positive if you is looking for a job.

Salary does not always equate to the best place to live, and that is the case here. Pharmacists in the Last Frontier make more on average than any other pharmacists in the country-an average of $137,650 per year or $15,300 more than the national average.

However, that high average salary may be because it is hard to attract pharmacists to Alaska. The state ranks last in the total number of pharmacists and its location quotient. As such, there’s plenty of demand for pharmacists in the state-in fact, it ranks number one in terms of pharmacy job openings. But this may also mean that there may not be a very rich and active peer community.

Another strike against the state is that they ranked number 47 on the list of uninsured residents-16% of Alaskans do not have health insurance.

The Sooner State tended to be toward the middle of the pack for most of its numbers. However, there were a couple of extremes. The bad news first: The state’s overall well-being came in at number 47. The worse news was the population’s overall health insurance coverage: 16.5% of Oklahomans are uninsured.

The good news, however, is that they have a reasonably low cost-of-living, coming in fifth.

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Looking for a new pharmacy job? You should probably avoid these states.

One of the great things about living in the United States of America is that if you don’t like where you live, you have a choice of 49 other states to hang your hat. But before you pack the car and uproot your family, consider our list of the top ten states for pharmacists.

 to check out our 2018 rankings. Did your state make it this year?

There are a number of variables involved in declaring which states are better than others. Salary is, of course, important, but doesn’t mean everything. If it did, then Alaska would be number one. Now, we aren’t disparaging Alaska, by any means, but we also looked at other factors that impact the pharmacist’s quality of life. (Incidentally, even though Alaskan pharmacists got paid the most-an average of $137,650 per year-when other variables were considered, it ranked number 43).

Mean annual wage (the national average for pharmacists was $122,230)

Number of pharmacists per state (there were about 297,000 pharmacists nationwide in 2016)

Location quotient of the industry (the local concentration of pharmacists as compared to the national average)

Number of Pharmacy Robberies (including armed robbery, employee pilferage, and night break-ins-there were 632 pharmacy robberies nationwide)

Overall well-being for the state population

Stress (including stress related to work, family, money, and health and safety)

We looked at each state using these criteria and then gave each a number from 1 to 50, depending on their ranking (as with golf, the lower the score the better). We then compiled the 12 rankings for each state to give that state a total and ranked them from 1 to 50 based on that final score. Here are the ten best states to be a pharmacist.

Interestingly, this list is really two sets of regional neighbors-portions of the upper Midwest and New England.

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Of course, this is a snapshot of the averages of different metrics. The world is a bell curve-most statistics fall mostly in the middle of the data, while the extreme high and low ends tell different stories.

Without further ado, here are the top ten.

It may be cold in Minnesota, but pharmacists in the North Star State enjoy a good quality of life, a low stress level, and are quite financially savvy.

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Salaries are just a few hundred dollars less than the national average ($122,900), and health coverage for the overall population is high up in the rankings (number four), meaning residents have good access to their prescription medications. Not so great, however, is that Minnesota ranks 10 on the list of pharmacy robberies (there were 18 in 2016). In fact, Minnesota is the only state in our top ten that made the DEA’s top ten for pharmacy robberies.

The Badger State is Minnesota’s eastern neighbor and pharmacists make a couple thousand dollars more than the national average-$124,060. Another good indication is the amount of job openings. Coming in at the tenth place for job openings placed it higher than any other state in our top ten. More job openings means that, obviously, it is easier to get a job and that employers are likely to pay a little more to attract pharmacists. The fact that there are so many job openings drops the location quotient, which means pharmacists may not find a robust peer community.

The definitive ranking of the best places to practice pharmacy in America.

Author | Robert Elsenpeter

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The Top 10 Worst States to Be a Pharmacist

The Top 10 Best States to Be a Pharmacist

The Top 10 Worst States to Be a Pharmacist

The Top 10 States to Be a Pharmacist