In 1971, a cheeky Minnesota writer landed a satirical essay in the New Yorker magazine about the United States being named the No. 1 country for the 28th year in a row by the Association of World Leaders.

“With America withdrawing from a costly and divisive war abroad while beset by economic ills at home, some international observers had thought that the large Western nation might forfeit the No. 1 nod to the unexciting but steady Soviet Union,” the essayist wrote in spot-on mimicry of journalese. “And when the U.S. dollar took sick a week before world leaders were to mail their ballots, it was even feared the U.S. might finish third behind the newly popular China.”

That writer, Garrison Keillor, would eventually host a national radio show from St. Paul each Saturday night on which he’d tell stories about a mythical Minnesota town “where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking and all the children are above average.”

I think of Keillor’s career of puncturing pretense whenever there’s a story about Minnesota showing up on top, or near the top, of some economic ranking or poll or study, as the state did recently in a new report on quality of life by the State of the Nation Project, based at Tulane University.

I haven’t noticed much bragging about that report, aside from a social media post here or there by Gov. Tim Walz and some other political leaders. Perhaps Minnesota modesty is real.

More likely, though, is that Minnesotans understood the key finding of the report was nothing to brag about — that well-being is in decline nationally, and Minnesota happens to be on top amid that decline.

“There really aren’t any states knocking it out of the park on how people feel about their lives, other people or key institutions,” Tulane economist Douglas Harris told New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof about the study findings.

We are overwhelmed with downbeat messages these days.

But let me say, while I write frequently about the challenges to Minnesota’s prosperity, I did not find the state’s top position in the report surprising. My own experience and observation is that Minnesota remains one of the best places to live in the country.

Relatively speaking, crime is low, social capital high, the environment clean and public education better in Minnesota — all impressions reinforced in the 31 different measurements by the nonpartisan group of economists and political leaders behind the report.

The economic data in the report also matched what I have often said: Minnesota fares better than its size would suggest on economic output, wealth, productivity and participation in the labor force.

I was surprised by how strongly the state fared in the report on income inequality, which has received enormous focus by business and political leaders over the last decade. That progress is encouraging.

The most disturbing surprise to me in the report was Minnesota’s poor showing in the measure of youth ages 12 to 17 who have experienced a major depressive episode in the past year. That trend has been going up nationwide in recent years, but it has been rising even faster in Minnesota. The state ranked 43rd, meaning 42 other states have teenagers with less depression that was documented.

Social media gets a lot of blame for this, but I fear that too many teenagers and young adults look out at the future and don’t see the opportunity or promise they should. Over the past few weeks, graduating students at some colleges have jeered or even walked out when speakers talked about the transformative force of artificial intelligence. Many see AI as a job thief.

I see a connection in those youth attitudes to the trend I often cite in this column: the leveling off of population growth across most of the country, and outright decline of population in some areas. If people can’t see or feel that growth is happening, they tend to become more cautious with money and averse to risk.

Here in Minnesota, people may not recognize the trend of a stagnating population. But they have likely sensed the state today no longer stands out in economic performance as much as it did in decades past, no matter what the State of the Nation Project said about us.

John Phelan, an economist at the Center of the American Experiment in Golden Valley, has captured this development best by chronicling the erosion of a slightly esoteric measure: per-capita economic output.

At its most recent peak in 2014, the per capita output of a Minnesotan was about $4,700 greater than the average American. But because the state’s economic growth has trailed the nation’s every year since then, that gap narrowed.

Phelan recently wrote that 2025 GDP data revealed Minnesota’s edge had eroded completely. The state’s per capita GDP, for the first time on record, fell below the national average.

The old Keilloresque portrait of Minnesota emphasized modesty in success. Today’s Minnesota requires recognition of change and challenge.

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