The Best Places to Live

Where would you live in the U.S. if money were no object? Many people might automatically pick New York or San Francisco, maybe New Orleans or Boston. But they might be missing out. All these cities are great, but other cities are even better. Welcome to Businessweek.com’s first America’s Best Cities ranking. With assistance from Bloomberg Rankings, Businessweek.com evaluated 100 of the country’s largest cities based on 16 criteria, which include: the number of restaurants, bars, and museums per capita; the number of colleges, libraries, and professional sports teams; the income, poverty, unemployment, crime, and foreclosure rates; percent of population with bachelor’s degrees, public school performance, park acres per 1,000 residents, and air quality. Greater weighting was placed on recreational amenities such as parks, bars, restaurants, and museums, and on educational attainment, school performance, poverty, and air quality. The data came from the U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Sperling’s BestPlaces, GreatSchools, Onboard Informatics, RealtyTrac, and the Trust for Public Land. Read on to find out which cities top the ranking. Is your city on the list?



Click here to see the best cities in America.