Twenty-seven percent of people who moved last year cited being closer to family as the main reason, according to the personal-finance website WalletHub, which released its report on “2021’s Best & Worst Places to Raise a Family.”
To determine the most family-friendly places in America, WalletHub compared more than 180 cities across 48 key metrics. The data set ranges from housing affordability to school-system quality to COVID-19 cases.
The best cities for families, according to the survey, were Overland Park, Kan., Fremont, Calif., Irvine, Calif., Plano, Texas, Columbia, Md., South Burlington, Vt., Seattle, Scottsdale, Ariz., Gilbert, Ariz. and Madison Wisc.
The worst cities were Montgomery, Ala., Miami, San Bernardino, Calif., Wilmington, Del., Birmingham, Ala., Newark, N.J., Hialeah, Fla., Memphis, Tenn., Cleveland, and Detroit.
The best versus worst facts showed:
- New York having the most playgrounds (per square root of the population), 0.629307, which is 12.7 times more than in Hialeah, Fla., the city with the fewest at 0.049557.
- Irvine, Calif., having the fewest violent crimes (per 1,000 residents), 0.64, which is 30.7 times fewer than in Detroit, the city with the most at 19.65.
- Overland Park, Kan. having the highest median family annual income (adjusted for cost of living), $119,957, which is 3.5 times higher than in Newark, New Jersey, the city with the lowest at $34,753.
- Overland Park, Kan. having the lowest share of families receiving food stamps, 2.42 percent, which is 18.2 times lower than in Detroit, the city with the highest at 44.11 percent.
- Fremont, Calif. having the lowest share of families living in poverty, 2.70 percent, which is 11.1 times lower than in Detroit, the city with the highest at 30 percent.