New York ranked third among 48 states in a new energy-efficiency comparison, helped by the fewest vehicle miles traveled per resident in the country.
The state scored 80.71 out of 100 in WalletHub's 2026 study, released Tuesday. California led with 84.19 points, followed by Vermont at 83.67; Washington placed fourth at 80.70, just one-hundredth of a point behind New York.
WalletHub combined measures of energy use in homes and automobile travel. New York placed 12th for home energy efficiency and third for the combined auto measure, according to the study's state table. The emailed summary accompanying the report placed New York 18th for vehicle-fuel efficiency and first for transportation efficiency.
The ranking describes statewide averages, not household utility bills or the energy performance of a particular Finger Lakes community. It does not establish that every New York household spends less on energy than households in lower-ranked states.
Transportation lifts New York's score
New Yorkers traveled an average of 6,088 vehicle miles per resident annually, the lowest figure in the study, WalletHub reported. The company's transportation measure counts annual miles driven per capita, while its separate fuel-efficiency measure compares vehicle miles driven with gallons of gasoline consumed.
Those measures help explain why the state ranked near the top for automobiles despite its 18th-place fuel-efficiency result. The study does not break out travel patterns for individual New York regions, so the statewide result should not be read as a Finger Lakes-specific measure.
On the home side, WalletHub said New York had the seventh-lowest residential energy consumption per capita. After accounting for weather through annual heating and cooling degree days, however, the state ranked 12th for home energy efficiency. The two rankings differ because raw consumption and climate-adjusted efficiency are related but not identical measures.
Among nearby states, Massachusetts ranked fifth overall, while New Jersey placed 18th, Connecticut 26th and Pennsylvania 27th. These are relative positions within WalletHub's 48-state comparison, not measurements of what residents in those states pay for utilities.
How WalletHub built the ranking
WalletHub assigned up to 50 points each to home and automobile efficiency. Its home calculation compares total residential energy consumption per person with annual degree days, a measure of heating and cooling conditions. For autos, it combined miles per gallon of gasoline consumed with miles driven per resident, weighting the two components to reflect national consumption patterns.
The company said its figures came from the U.S. Census Bureau, the National Climatic Data Center, the U.S. Energy Information Administration and the Federal Highway Administration. It collected the data used for the ranking as of Sept. 15, 2026. The report does not say that every underlying observation was recorded during 2026.
Alaska and Hawaii were excluded because of data limitations. WalletHub's 100-point score ranks the states within its chosen measures and weights; it is not a direct estimate of energy savings, emissions reductions or affordability for New York residents.
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