The District of Columbia has landed at the 19th spot on US News & World Report‘s “Best Places to Live in the US” index this year.
The city has also been ranked the 20th safest place to live, 21st best place to live for quality of life, and the 47th best place to retire in the country.
To make the list, US News analysts evaluated a total of 150 most heavily populated metropolitan areas in terms of the strength of their job market, quality of life, and being a desirable place to live based on Americans’ preferences.
DC, which was ranked number 28 last year, has an overall score of 6.6 out of 10, with its job market scoring eight and quality of life seven.
DC’s desirability, value, and net migration scores are 5.6, 5.8, 4.8 out of 10, respectively.
“Washington offers a comparable value to similarly sized metro areas when you compare housing costs to median household income,” according to the US News’ report, while DC housing costs in 2021 were around $535,038 — with the national average recorded as $365,616.
Average commute time in Washington DC is 34.8 minutes, which is 7.9 minutes longer than the national average, the report also noted.
Meanwhile, the top 10 places to live as per US News’ ranking for 2022-2023 are as follows:
- Huntsville, Alabama
- Colorado Springs, Colorado
- Green Bay, Wisconsin
- Boulder, Colorado
- San Jose, California
- Raleigh & Durham, North Carolina
- Fayetteville, Arkansas
- Portland, Maine
- Sarasota, Florida
- San Francisco, California
Data used in the ranking was collected from the US Census Bureau, the FBI, the US Department of Labor, and the company’s internal resources.
To view the full ranking, click here.