For Easy Breathing, These States Are Best

If clean lungs are on your summer wish list, Hawaii comes out on top. Per Travel + Leisure, a new analysis by Compare the Market ranks the Aloha State as having the best air quality and respiratory health in the country, scoring 91.81 out of 100. Hawaii also logged the nation's lowest level of fine-particle (PM2.5) pollution and the fewest respiratory-related deaths: just 15.2 per 100,000 people. The rankings drew on CDC and World Population Review data and weighed four factors: fine-particle pollution, industrial toxins, asthma prevalence, and deaths from respiratory disease. Here, the top 10 states for breathing easy:

1. Hawaii
2. South Dakota
3. Nebraska
4. New York
5. New Jersey
6. Maryland
7. Minnesota
8. Florida
9. Texas
10. Virginia

More here on some of the top contenders, plus how some other nations fared. (If your state has been slammed by smoke from wildfires, here's how to better protect yourself.)