Livability.com Top 100 Best Places to Live in America
While getting consistent, reliable data at the city level had its challenges, the results were worth the effort.
(PRWEB) October 16, 2013
Livability.com partnered with the Martin Prosperity Institute, the world's leading think-tank on the role of location, place and city-regions in global economic prosperity, to produce its inaugural Top 100 Most Livable Cities list. The list is the result of a months-long study of U.S. cities and the factors that make them the best places to live, work, and play.
"This is the first time we have focused on measures for specific cities instead of metropolitan regions," says Kevin Stolarick, PhD, Research Director at the Martin Prosperity Institute. "While getting consistent, reliable data at the city level had its challenges, the results were worth the effort."
The data collected for the ranking were weighted based on an exclusive survey conducted for Livability.com by Ipsos Public Affairs, a leading market research firm. Respondents were asked about factors that make their communities better places to live, as well as the factors they would consider in selecting another city.
Those factors were narrowed down to eight categories – economics, housing, amenities, infrastructure, demographics, social and civic capital, education and health care – that were used to score and rank cities. Researchers narrowed their field to small-to-mid-sized cities with populations between 20,000 and 350,000 before collecting data for each city from a range of sources, including the U.S. Census Bureau, Walkscore and GreatSchools.com.
"Great cities are more than just a check-list of bars, coffee shops and museums. Our goal was to collect the best data available, from the best sources and the best partners to gauge the true measures of livability. Access was important, but so were utilization and affordability," says Livability.com Editor Matt Carmichael. "By using data from the public sector, the private sector and nonprofits focused on these issues, we have compiled an Index that celebrates America's great cities and towns."
The top 100 cities are featured on Livability.com, along with their LivScores and information about the amenities that helped them make the list.
About Livability.com:
Livability.com explores what makes small to mid-sized cities great places to live, work and visit. We examine issues related to livability such as walkability, cultural amenities, transportation, urban planning, and sustainability through exclusive research and discussions on our blog. We celebrate the accomplishments of these cities through our monthly top 10 lists, our annual ranking of livable cities, our rich photography and our conversations with readers in social media. Livability.com is a division of Journal Communications, Inc.
About the Martin Prosperity Institute:
The Lloyd & Delphine Martin Prosperity Institute is the world’s leading think-tank on the role of sub-national factors – location, place and city-regions – in global economic prosperity. We take an integrated view of prosperity, looking beyond economic measures to include the importance of quality of place and the development of people’s creative potential. The Institute conducts relevant research to shape debates about economic prosperity and to inform private, public and civic decision-making at the highest levels. The Institute is part of the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.