Here's how we ranked the US cities with the best quality of life
In order to determine the lists that were included in our ranking, we checked out Niche's 2016 Places to Live rankings under the "cities" category - which assessed more than 220 places with a population exceeding 100,000 people - for rankings that evoke a high quality of life, like the best cities for safety, outdoor activities, job prospects, and education.
Once we identified our eight lists, we inverted them in order to award a larger amount of points to the cities ranked higher. For example, 100 points went to the No. 1 city on a list, 99 points to the No. 2, 98 to the No. 3, and so on through No. 100, which received a single point.
We then added up all the points we designated to each city to determine an overall ranking. Every city in the top 25 appeared in six or more Niche city lists.
Our highest ranked city - Bellevue, Washington - received 580 overall points. Our lowest ranked city in the top 25 - Denton, Texas - received 383 points.
Here are the Niche rankings we compiled for our list:
- Safest Cities
- Most Diverse Cities
- Healthiest Cities
- Cities with the Best Public Schools
- Cities with the Best Job Opportunities*
- Best Cities to Buy a House
- Best Cities to Raise a Family
- Best Cities for Outdoor Activities
*It's worth noting that the list of cities with the best job opportunities incorporates US Census data from a few years ago. As such, the list is heavy on cities that enjoyed the benefits of the shale oil boom, like Midland and Odessa, TX. As oil prices have fallen and the energy industry has hit somewhat harder times in the last year or so, those cities may have somewhat harder employment prospects than they did at the time this data was collected.