Top 10 Best States to Be a Pharmacist in 2019

For pharmacists, while stress might seem a near-universal constant, location can make a huge impact on factors like salary, safety, and happiness-and while pharmacy might always be stressful, some places are just inherently more stressed out than others.To help pharmacists make sense of it all, Drug Topics put together our list of 10 Best and 10 Worst states. Using a variety of factors, we put together the definitive list for where you should want to put your pharmacy degree to good use-and the places you should avoid at all costs.From money matters to the overall comfort of the state, utilizing data from sources like the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), WalletHub, and U.S. News and World report, we pooled together nine factors that have a direct impact on how a state will affect how you live and work. They are: Average annual salary: How much money the average pharmacist made in a state. Cost of living: How far all of that money will go when living day to day. Housing affordability: Compares median household prices with median household incomes. If you want to live in a mansion on your salary, you should probably steer clear of states with hyper-expensive real estate costs. Employment: The raw number of jobs in a state. Obviously, more pharmacists means you have a better chance of getting a job in your desired location. Location quotient: Per BLS, “The location quotient is the ratio of the area concentration of occupational employment to the national average concentration. A location quotient greater than one indicates the occupation has a higher share of employment than average, and a location quotient less than one indicates the occupation is less prevalent in the area than average.” A lower score in this category indicates you’ll be unlikely to find any camaraderie with fellow pharmacists in your area. Stress levels: How stressed out people in your state are, on average. Safety: Even beyond comparatively-rare pharmacy robberies, overall safety in a state is important, especially when taking factors like natural disasters into account. Overall happiness: Nothing makes a pharmacy more stressful than having stressed out or rude customers, so it might be worth looking at states where populations have the highest happiness levels. Uninsured rate: The share of patients in the state who lack any kind of insurance, which can make your job harder.Every state was ranked using each of those nine factors, and given a score from 1 to 50, with 1 being the best in a category and 50 being the worst. Scores were then added up and states were ranked based on how high or low their scores were.Here, from 10 to 1, are the best states to be a pharmacist in 2019.

10. Nebraska

• Average annual salary: 34

• Cost of living: 21

• Housing affordability: 5

• Employment: 33

• Location quotient: 9

• Stress levels: 33

• Safety: 24

• Overall happiness: 9

• Uninsured rate: 30

Total score: 198

Nebraska is a case that shows you don’t always have to be great to be excellent-sometimes being pretty average across the board can lead to good things. While pharmacists shouldn’t expect the best salaries or job openings, they can look forward to cheap homes, a good pharmacist community, and nicer (or at least happier) patients.

8. (tie) Wisconsin

• Average annual salary: 5

• Cost of living: 22

• Housing affordability: 15

• Employment: 21

• Location quotient: 39

• Stress levels: 43

• Safety: 17

• Overall happiness: 25

• Uninsured rate: 7

Total score: 194

If money is important, you can’t do much better than Wisconsin. Not only are salaries high, they’ll also get you further than they will in other places. However, stress levels are higher and finding a community of pharmacists might be tough.

8. (tie) Illinois

• Average annual salary: 14

• Cost of living: 23

• Housing affordability: 16

• Employment: 7

• Location quotient: 34

• Stress levels: 24

• Safety: 32

• Overall happiness: 24

• Uninsured rate: 20

Total score: 194

If you’re having trouble finding a job, maybe you should check out Illinois, which hires a large number of pharmacists. Salaries are also fairly generous and will go pretty far.

7. Arizona

• Average annual salary: 15

• Cost of living: 26

• Housing affordability: 37

• Employment: 13

• Location quotient: 7

• Stress levels: 12

• Safety: 26

• Overall happiness: 18

• Uninsured rate: 39

Total score: 193

Arizona offers the chance for good community, offering both a good location quotient and a total employment number. While housing might be on the higher side, salaries remain high.

5. (tie) Ohio

• Average annual salary: 43

• Cost of living: 16

• Housing affordability: 2

• Employment: 6

• Location quotient: 19

• Stress levels: 19

• Safety: 34

• Overall happiness: 37

• Uninsured rate: 16

Total score: 192

While you may not make as much in Ohio, you certainly get a lot of bang for your buck (not to mention the high number of pharmacy jobs in the state).

5. (tie) Iowa

• Average annual salary: 46

• Cost of living: 13

• Housing affordability: 1

• Employment: 30

• Location quotient: 35

• Stress levels: 45

• Safety: 7

• Overall happiness: 11

• Uninsured rate: 4

Total score: 192

Maybe it’s appropriate that Iowa and Ohio are tied: they both have relatively low salaries, made up for by cheaper expenses. Iowa, though, has stronger safety scores and a much better happiness score.

4. Pennsylvania

• Average annual salary: 45

• Cost of living: 30

• Housing affordability: 4

• Employment: 5

• Location quotient: 11

• Stress levels: 26

• Safety: 33

• Overall happiness: 26

• Uninsured rate: 9

Total score: 189

Pennsylvania’s salaries might be low and not go quite as far for day-to-day living, but it offers great employment numbers and community, and a low uninsured rate and average happiness levels could mean fewer tough-to-handle patients walking through the door.

3. Michigan

• Average annual salary: 39

• Cost of living: 5

• Housing affordability: 9

• Employment: 11

• Location quotient: 31

• Stress levels: 20

• Safety: 29

• Overall happiness: 36

• Uninsured rate: 8

Total score: 188

Michigan pharmacists can look forward to cheaper costs of living and good employment opportunities-but watch out for grumpier patients.

2. Kentucky

• Average annual salary: 23

• Cost of living: 14

• Housing affordability: 13

• Employment: 24

• Location quotient: 8

• Stress levels: 4

• Safety: 21

• Overall happiness: 45

• Uninsured rate: 10

Total score: 162

Kentucky pharmacists seem to have it all-pretty decent salaries and employment, low expenses, and very low stress levels. The only thing holding them back is happiness.

1. Minnesota

• Average annual salary: 7

• Cost of living: 31

• Housing affordability: 17

• Employment: 16

• Location quotient: 22

• Stress levels: 50

• Safety: 1

• Overall happiness: 3

• Uninsured rate: 6

Total score: 153

Here we are: the best state for pharmacists in the country. With a very high salary, a very happy clientele base, safety in spades, low insurance rates, and good pharmacy employment levels, Minnesota seems to have it all. It does go to show though, that even in a pharmacist’s paradise, stress isn’t going away anytime soon.

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