NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The Tax Foundation, a nonprofit fiscal policy research group, estimated the average taxpayer's total state and local tax burden for 2006 in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

That burden reflects what residents pay in state and local income taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, luxury taxes and fuel taxes, among others. It also factors in the portion of business taxes passed along to state residents through higher prices, lower wages or lower profits.

The burden is a measure of what a state and its local governments collect as a percentage of per capita income. States below are ranked from least to most tax friendly, but may be sorted by any of the categories listed in the column headings. Click on state names for key statistics on major cities and towns from the Best Places to Live database.