Seattle has been named one of the best cities for families in the U.S., according to a new ranking by WalletHub. The city placed sixth overall on the personal finance site’s annual list, which compared 182 major cities on factors like affordability, education, safety, and access to family fun.
The personal finance management site compared cities across five key dimensions: opportunities for family fun, health and safety, education and childcare, affordability, and socio-economics.
“We evaluated those categories using 45 relevant metrics,” said a press release. “Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the most favorable conditions for family life. We determined each city’s weighted average across all metrics to calculate its overall score and used the resulting scores to rank-order our sample.”
The report authors noted that they only considered Seattle proper, excluding cities in the surrounding metro area. Here are a few details of how Seattle compares, with a score of 1 being the best and 91 being average.
- 6th – Overall Rank
- 7th – Median Family Salary (Adjusted for Cost of Living)
- 48th – Unemployment Rate
- 10th – % of Two-Parent Families
- 45th – Playgrounds per Capita
- 1st– Number of Attractions
- 12th – % of Families Living in Poverty
- 45th – Separation & Divorce Rate
These scores helped Seattle earn its place among the best cities for families in the U.S., especially when it comes to median income and attractions.
“Finding the best place to raise a family is difficult, between balancing an affordable cost of living with good educational opportunities, safety, and enough recreation to keep kids entertained,” said Wallethub analyst Chip Lupo. “On top of all of these factors, people also often want to raise their children close to their extended family. Therefore, current or prospective parents can benefit from narrowing down their choices to a few of the best cities that are within a reasonable drive of their family.”
To come up with the comparison and ranking, Wallethub used numerous data sources, including the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, United States Environmental Protection Agency, County Health Rankings, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Council for Community and Economic Research, The Trust for Public Land, Federal Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, National Partnership for Women & Families, TripAdvisor, Walk Score, Chmura Economics & Analytics, TransUnion, Yelp, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, GreatSchools.org, Numbeo, ATTOM, a property data provider – U.S. Foreclosure Market Report and WalletHub research.
