This List Shows 2021’s Best (And Worst) Cities To Raise A Family
Parents want a city where there's lots to do and where it's safe to do it.
When you’re choosing a place to raise your family, you’re often looking for not just a beautiful neighborhood, but an excellent city to boot. From good public education access to lots of green space to the cost of living, tons of considerations have to be made beyond the house itself.
Personal finance site WalletHub apparently was thinking that too and wanted to determine the most family-friendly places in America. They came up with a list of 182 U.S. cities and ranked them on whether they were the best, and worst places, to raise a family.
Here’s How they Calculated the Best Places to Raise a Family
Looking at 48 different key metrics, including family fun activities in the city, health and safety metrics like the percent of people fully vaccinated with the COVID-19 vaccine and public hospital rankings, the city’s education and child care situation, and affordability.
“To determine which cities are most conducive to family life, WalletHub compared 182 U.S. cities — including the 150 most populated U.S. cities, plus at least two of the most populated cities in each state,” they explain. From there, they took the weighted data and averaged it across all the metrics to calculate the city’s overall score. Those scores were used to calculate each city’s ranking of the best to the worst cities to raise a family. And here are the results, with the total score being out of 100.
The worst cities to raise a family in the U.S.:
5. Newark, NJ, with a total score of 38.41, the worst metric being affordability.
4. Hialeah, FL, with a total score of 38.37, the worst metric being affordability.
3. Memphis, TN, with a total score of 36.98, the worst metric being health and safety.
2. Cleveland, OH, with a total score of 36.73, the worst metric being socio-economics.
1. Detroit, MI, with a total score of 34.67, the worst metric being socio-economics.
Source: WalletHub
The best cities to raise a family in the U.S.:
5. Columbia, MD, with a total score of 67.75, the best metric being affordability.
4. Plano, TX, with a total score of 68.80, the best metric being health and safety.
3. Irvine, CA, with a total score of 69.19, the best metric being health and safety.
2. Fremont, CA, with a total score of 71.37, the best metric being education and child care.
1. Overland Park, KS, with a total score of 72.48, the best metric being affordability.
According to WalletHub, 27 percent of people who moved last year said they did to be closer to family. Tons of folks have the desire to have more outdoor space and live in a city with lots of fun for the family and live more comfortably financially. These cities that ranked the best might see a big boom in population over the next few years. Or if they don’t, the people who live there know they made a pretty good choice.
