Meanwhile, Utah tied for the sixth-lowest rate of newspaper subscribers among states nationally. Its rate in 2007 was 12 subscribers per 100 residents. The national average is 17. The only states that were lower were: Maryland (8), Georgia and Nevada (10), and Arizona and Texas (11).

HEALTH: Utah was tied for the nation's fourth-lowest death rate in 2006: 7.1 per 1,000 residents. Its infant mortality rate was the lowest in the nation for children under 1 year old: 4.5 per 1,000 live births.

Utah had the lowest death rates in the nation in 2005 for cancer (102 per 100,000 residents, compared to a national average of 188.7) and for cerebrovascular illness such as strokes (32.2 per 100,000, compared to a national average of 48.4). It had the nation's second-lowest rate of death from heart disease (116.3 per 100,000, compared to a national average of 220).

Maybe that is because Utah has the nation's lowest rate of cigarette smoking, with 9.8 percent of Utah adults being cigarette smokers in 2006 compared to a national average of 20.2 percent.

TRANSPORTATION: Traffic congestion in the Salt Lake City metro area cost each resident an estimated $258 extra in 2005 from wasted gasoline for themselves and goods transported for them, and it wasted an average of 15 hours a year of extra travel time for each person.

But Utahns had the 10th shortest average commute to work in 2006: 20.8 minutes. The national average was 25 minutes.

The fatality rate on Utah's highways was lower than average: 1.1 per 100 million vehicle miles traveled, compared to a national average of 1.4.

Utah's highway bridges are in better shape than most in the nation. Inspections show that 17.1 percent are either "structurally deficient" or "functionally obsolete." That is the 10th lowest rate among the states. The national average is 25.8 percent of all bridges are deficient or obsolete.

ENERGY: Utah ranked first among the states for production of natural gas in 2006 at 5.51 trillion cubic feet, or more than a quarter of all the nation's natural gas that year. Meanwhile, Utah ranked 12th among states in 2006 for production of crude oil at 18 million barrels a year.

Coal provided 89.3 percent of Utah's electricity in 2006, with 8.2 percent coming from natural gas, 1.8 percent from hydroelectric and 0.2 percent from petroleum — and none from nuclear. The average mix nationally is quite different: 49 percent from coal, 20 percent from natural gas, 19.4 percent from nuclear, 7.1 percent from hydroelectric and 1.6 percent from petroleum.