U.S. News analyzed the 150 most popular metro areas in order to find the best places to live and, to our surprise, New York City ranked in pretty low at #120—something we can’t say we agree with!
The U.S. News & World Report’s Best Places To Live ranking is meant to provide readers with the information required in order to choose a place to settle down. Data from sources including the U.S. Census Bureau, the FBI, the U.S. Department of Labor, and U.S. News’ own internal sources was gathered and then categorized into five indexes—job market, value, quality of life, desirability, and net migration. These indexes were then evaluated using a methodology determined by Americans’ preferences.
In order to make the top of the list, the area had to rank high up in each of the five indexes based on the following criteria:
Job Market – 20%
- Unemployment rate
- Average salary
Value – 25%
- Blended median annual household income
- Blended annual housing cost
Quality of Life – 32.5%
- Crime rates
- Quality & availability of health care
- Quality of education
- Well-being
- Commuter index
- Air quality index
Desirability – 17.5%
- People’s desire to live in an area
Net Migration – 5%
- Whether people are moving away or to an area
New York City ranked in as follows:
While NYC came in pretty low on this ranking, it may just be that people are looking more to come here once they’re older—a ranking on the Best Places to Retire in the U.S. shows NYC at the #32 spot out of 150.
Whether you’re growing old in the Big Apple or waiting until you do grow old to move here, NYC will always be #1 in our hearts!
To see the full ranking click here (spoiler alert: the #1 spot for the best place to live went to Huntsville, AL).