Money.com 50 Best Places to Live in the United States

50 Best Places to Live in the United States

Money.com recently released the "50 best places to live in the United States" rankings based on methodology of analyzing economic opportunities, quality of life, diversity, and more.  

It is important to note that Money.com changed their ranking methodology this year.  Money.com indicates, "Chief among those changes included introducing new data related to national heritage, languages spoken at home and religious diversity."   Money.com, also, prioritized locations with, "more regional diversity" and they "strove to include cities of all sizes by lifting the population limit."  These changes in methodology resulted in a "new tier of larger (and often more diverse) candidates," according to Money.com.

50 Best Places to Live in the U.S.

Lets take a look at the 2022 - 2023 "50 Best Places to Live in the United States" rankings and analyze the rankings by state.  To do this we will cover the following topics:

1. Primary Ranking factors considered
2. 50 Best Places to Live in the United States list for 2022 - 2023
3. State Analysis of the List
4. Breakdown of States in the List
5. Final Thoughts

Nine (9) Primary Best Places to Live Ranking Factors 

Money.com used these nine primary ranking factors in determining the Best Places to Live in the United States rankings:

1. Cost of living: This looks at how expensive it is to live in a community — factors included costs of transportation, health care, child care, insurance, and housing affordability relative to local income, as well as additional factors.
2. Diversity: Money.com says, "this factor looks at the population with a heavy focus on how well various races are represented and integrated into the community.   Other Diversity factors included age, religious diversity, heritage, and languages spoken at home.  Money.com gave preference toward locations with populations that were less than 80% white.
3. Economic opportunity: This includes indices tracking poverty, if the community employs a healthy mix of different industries,  job growth projections, and employment data.
4. Education: Looks at the percentage of the population with a four-year degree, high school graduation rates, K-12 test scores, and if the area is close to or includes one of our Best Colleges plus other factors.
5. Fun and amenities: This looks at location data to verify the location has interesting things for residents to do and tracks restaurants, parks, farmers markets, gyms, museums,  as well as infrastructure like airports, police departments and fire stations. 
6. Health and safety: This looks at factors that include health expectancy, access to clinics and hospitals, and violent crime indices, as well as, households reporting serious health problems.
7. Housing market: This looks at housing availability, rents, how long for-sale homes stay on the market, home sales prices, and listing prices — focusing on affordability.
8. Income and personal finance: Looks at how well various income groups are represented within an area, household income, and taxes.
9. Quality of life: Looks at accessibility to green space, risk of environmental catastrophe in the area, commute times, how walkable is the area, and weather.

Now lets take a look at the rankings.

50 Best Places to Live in the United States List for 2022 - 2023

1. Atlanta, Georgia
2. Tempe, Arizona
3. Kirkland, Washington
4. Raleigh, North Carolina
5. Rogers Park (Chicago), Illinois
6. Columbia, Maryland
7. Somerville, Massachusetts
8. Ann Arbor, Michigan
9. Tampa, Florida
10. Jersey City, New Jersey
11. Boise, Idaho
12. Chapel Hill, North Carolina
13. Irvine, California
14. Fort Lee, New Jersey
15. Arlington, Virginia
16. Naperville, Illinois
17. Milton, Massachusetts
18. Fremont, California
19. Carmel, Indiana
20. Rockville, Maryland
21. Franklin, Tennessee
22. San Diego, California
23. Hillsboro, Oregon
24. Abington, Pennsylvania
25. San Jose, California
26. Alexandria, Virginia
27. Chanhassen, Minnesota
28. Denver, Colorado
29. Overland Park, Kansas
30. Morristown, New Jersey
31. Lafayette, Colorado
32. Camas, Washington
33. Altamonte Springs, Florida
34. South Burlington, Vermont
35. Marietta, Georgia
36. Kirkwood, Missouri
37. Glen Cove, New York
38. Kaneohe, Hawaii
39. Hutto, Texas
40. Madison, Wisconsin
41. Salt Lake City, Utah
42. Bentonville, Arkansas
43. Sarasota, Florida
44. Nashua, New Hampshire
45. Norman, Oklahoma
46. Greenville, South Carolina
47. Juneau, Alaska
48. Coralville, Iowa
49. Jeffersonville, Indiana
50. Sparks, Nevada

State Representation in the List

Analyzing the list by state the following data can be determined:

• 34 states had at least 1 city ranked in the list.  
• 22 states had 1 city represented in the list.  
• 12 states had 2 or more cities represented in the list.
• 16 states had no representation in the list.

Break down of states with 2 or more cities in 50 Best Places to Live:

California is the state with the most places represented in the list with 4 cities included in the "50 Best Places to Live in the United States".

Florida and New Jersey both had 3 cities in the rankings. 

And Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Virginia, and Washington states all had 2 cities each in the list. 

Lets take a look at the breakdown of cities by state.

California - 4 cities

• Irvine, California (13)
• Fremont, California (18)
• San Diego, California (22)
• San Jose, California (25)

Florida - 3 cities

• Tampa, Florida (9)
• Altamonte Springs, Florida (33)
• Sarasota, Florida (43)

New Jersey - 3 cities

• Jersey City, New Jersey (10)
• Fort Lee, New Jersey (14)
• Morristown, New Jersey (30)

Breakdown of States with 2 cities in the rankings

North Carolina's 2 cities are both in the top 15.  Illinois, Maryland, and Massachusetts cities are all in the top 20 cities in the list.   

Here is the breakdown of the top 50 Best Places to Live in the Unites States by State having 2 or more cities in the list:

Colorado 

• Denver, Colorado (28)
• Lafayette, Colorado (31)

Georgia

• Atlanta, Georgia (1) 
• Marietta, Georgia (35)

Illinois

• Rogers Park (Chicago), Illinois (5)
• Naperville, Illinois (16)

Indiana

• Carmel, Indiana (19)
• Jeffersonville, Indiana (49)

Maryland

• Columbia, Maryland (6)
• Rockville, Maryland (20)

Massachusetts

• Somerville, Massachusetts (7)
• Milton, Massachusetts (17)

North Carolina

• Raleigh, North Carolina (4)
• Chapel Hill, North Carolina (12)

Virginia

• Arlington, Virginia (15)
• Alexandria, Virginia (26)

Washington

• Kirkland, Washington (3)
• Camas, Washington (32)

It is nice about 70 percent of states are represented in the list of 50 Best places to live in the United States.  9 states have 2 cities in the list, 2 states have 3 cities in the list, and 1 state (California) has 4 cities in the list.

Final Thoughts

With the change in ranking methodology this year, the Money.com "50 Best Places to Live in the United States" list looks different from previous years.  Is the changed ranking methodology better?  Only time will tell.  One result of the changed methodology is that the cities represented in the list are cities or communities that are deemed more diverse than previous rankings.  

It is nice to see about 70% of states represented in the list. California, Florida, New Jersey, Georgia, Illinois, North Carolina all are well represented in the "50 Best Places to Live" rankings for 2022-2023.   

Some states with the largest population are under represented or not represented at all in the list.  Ohio which is the 7th most populated state in the United States with approximately 11,700,000 people (2020 census data) did not have any cities in the "50 Best Places to Live in the United States" rankings.  Texas and New York the 2nd and 4th most populous states respectively only had 1 city in the list.

Source Article:  Money.com 50 Best Places to Live 2022-2023

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