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Some US cities are better suited for building your career and raising children than others.
- Some of the best places to live in the US are well-suited for working parents.
- Personal finance company SmartAsset found the top 10 cities to build a career while raising a family.
- The results show a clear preference toward small- and medium-size towns far from the East Coast.
New parents who are starting their careers have a difficult choice to make: finding a place to live that gives both themselves and their children the greatest chance of success.
Naturally, some cities in the United States are better suited for working parents than others. Personal finance company SmartAsset rated each US city this week and found the 10 best cities where parents can build their careers while raising their families.
SmartAsset used nine metrics in its calculations:
- Unemployment rate for a three-month period at the end of 2017, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Median household income, according to the Census Bureau's 1-year American Community Survey.
- Median annual housing costs, according to the American Community Survey.
- Percent of workforce working more than 49 weeks per year, according to the American Community Survey
- Average commute time, according to the American Community Survey.
- Violent crime rate, or the number of crimes per 100,000 residents, according to the FBI Uniform Crime Reporting Program
- High school graduation rate, according to US Department of Education data.
- State policy benefitting working parents, according to the National Partnership for Women & Families
- Annual childcare costs, or the average annual cost of full-time center-based childcare for children up to age 4.
You can read more about SmartAsset's methodology here.
The results showed a clear preference toward small towns and medium-size cities far from the East Coast: Three inland states - Utah, Texas, and Iowa - contained seven of the top 10 cities. SmartAsset said northeastern cities tended to be weighed down by high childcare and housing costs, and the highest-ranking northeastern city on the list, Newton, Massachusetts, didn't even crack the top 100.
Read on to see the 10 best cities for working parents.