After ranking NYC as one of the best places to retire, and crowning Albany as the best place to live in New York, we’re a little more than confused with the results from U.S. News & World Reports. However, we can’t argue that living in NYC is nothing short of a dream, so finding ourselves among the best cities in the U.S. for quality of life doesn’t come as much of a surprise.
The rankings were determined based on a quality of life index. This measures the satisfaction of residents and their daily lives within that city. It also takes into account life-impacting factors of each metropolitan area.
Certain variables that impact a city’s quality of life index include crime rates, well-being, commuter index, quality and availability to healthcare, air quality index and federal emergency management agency. With everything factored in, NYC received a solid 7 for quality of life.
Ann Arbor, Michigan scored the number one spot for best quality of life, with a score of 7.9. Boulder, Colorado came in second with a score of 7.7, followed by Madison, Wisconsin in third with a 7.4. So where did NYC rank? The city that never sleeps took its place at number 25. And though that might sound worse than you’d initially expect, the entire study analyzed 150 of the country’s largest metropolitan areas. This makes NYC in the top 16th percentile for quality of life!
You can fill in the blanks for how every other city ranked on U.S. News & World Reports here.