Utah official links families, social capital to best state ranking
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- Aimee Winder Newton, director of the Utah Office of Families, speaks at a lecture at Weber State University on Oct. 30, 2025.
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- Aimee Winder Newton, director of the Utah Office of Families, speaks at a lecture at Weber State University on Oct. 30, 2025.
OGDEN, Utah– Utah can thank the strength of its families and social capital for a third consecutive ranking as the best overall state by U.S. News & World Report, Aimee Winder Newton, director of the Utah Office of Families, said during a lecture at Weber State University on Oct. 30.
The magazine uses eight measures to rank the 50 states: economy, education, health care, natural environment, crime, opportunity, fiscal stability and infrastructure. Utah ranked top in the U.S. News list in 2023, 2024 and 2025.
Newton has led the state’s Office of Families since it was created in 2022 in response to the governor’s focus on families. She credited some of the office’s work in improving some of those measures.
“Strengthening marriage and families through proactive policy can lead to lower public assistance costs, healthier communities, reduced crime rates, higher educational attainment, workforce readiness and increased civic participation,” Newton said.
Students and community members gathered at Weber State University’s McKay Education Building to hear Newton for the “Families Alive Tanner Lecture Series.” The lecture, titled “Strengthening Families: Utah’s United Effort to Support Marriage and Family Life,” was hosted by the Department of Child and Family Studies.
Newton highlighted the state’s push for a child tax credit for children ages 0 to 4, offering financial support during those vulnerable early years as well as a Home Visiting pilot program for vulnerable families, which addresses questions and stressors while offering companionship to stay-at-home parents.
Initiatives to protect children include reduced cell phone use in schools, child abuse prevention efforts and a pregnancy app for expectant parents, she said. The governor’s office also collaborates with the Utah Marriage Commission, which offers resources like classes and podcasts at strongermarriage.org, she noted.
The foundation of the state’s success lies in its social capital, Newton said. According to the Institute for Social Capital, social relationships are important assets to a thriving community.
During the lecture, Newton reinforced this idea by playing a video clip from the governor’s inauguration speech where he defined social capital as “the bonds between people and among networks which can be used to benefit each other… things like family unity. There are interactions, volunteerism, tourism, faith organizations, charitable giving, civic engagement; they all contribute to that social capital.”
Newton emphasized the importance of access to resources, noting that the Office of Families website states: “When parents have the support they need, outcomes for children improve.”
“We want families to recognize that a healthy family is not a perfect family, but a healthy family relies on each other for support and knows where to go to find resources and help,” she said.
Brennon Martinez, a psychology major attending the lecture, said the talk helped him.
“Utah has a lot of challenges and a lot of things that we can do better at,” he said. “But this presentation gave me some hope in that there’s resources available and that our government is trying their best.”
