What are the best states for physicians to work?

Just how much difference can your job’s location make?

To find the answer, we took a look at WalletHub.com’s recent report on the best and worst states for doctors. Taking into consideration factors that indicate available opportunities, level of competition, and quality of work environment, the survey aims to “help doctors make informed decisions regarding where to live and work.”

To arrive at these results, data was taken from a variety of publicly available sources to evaluate: physicians’ mean annual wage, monthly average starting salary, number of hospitals per capita, physicians per capita and more.

Such rankings can be helpful, in the sense that it’s good to amass input in any major decision-making process.

But at the end of the day, should findings such as these be the determining factor in where you choose to reside and to practice medicine?

Of course not, says Allan Tasman, M.D., professor and chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Louisville School of Medicine. “Living in an environment you don’t like because you think you’ll have a better job won’t make you happy in the long run,” he says.