With the COVID-19 pandemic forcing some Americans to vacate their residencies in big cities, the personal-finance website WalletHub released its report “2020’s Best Small Cities in America.”
To help Americans put down roots in places offering good quality of life and affordability, WalletHub compared more than 1,200 U.S. cities with populations between 25,000 and 100,000 using 43 key indicators of livability.
Those indicators range from housing costs and school-system quality to restaurants per capita and COVID-19 cases in the last seven days per 100,000 residents.
Those locations that ranked as a best small cities are Sammamish, Va. (1), Lexington, Mass. (2), Carmel, Ind. (3), Needham, Mass. (4), Sugar Land, Texas (5), Milton, Mass. (6), Brentwood, Tenn. (7), Southlake, Texas (8), Cedar Park, Texas (9), Redmond, Va. (10), Leawood, Kan. (11), Dublin, Ohio (12), Arlington, Mass. (13), Princeton, N.J. (14), Castle Rock, Colo. (15), Westfield, Ind. (16), Wheaton, Ill. (17), Kaysville, Utah. (18), Mason, Ohio (19) and Fishers, Ind. (20).
Comparing best versus worst:
- Southlake, Texas, has the highest median annual household income, $230,700, which is 10.5 times higher than in Carbondale, Ill, the city with the lowest at $22,025.
- Oswego, Ill., has the lowest share of the population living in poverty, 1.20 percent, which is 38.2 times lower than in Carbondale, Ill., the city with the highest at 45.80 percent.
- East Lansing, Mich., has the fewest average hours worked per week, 28.90, which is 1.7 times fewer than in Fort Hood, Texas, the city with the most at 48.10.
- Castle Rock and Parker, Colo., have the lowest share of adults in fair or poor health, 8.12 percent each, which is 4.3 times lower than in Eagle Pass, Texas, the city with the highest at 35.17 percent.