WalletHub, a personal finance website, recently released their list of best big cities to live in where Seattle placed second behind Virginia Beach, Virginia. The WalletHub analysts compared a sample of 62 U.S. cities that had populations of more than 300,000 across five key dimensions: affordability, economy, education and health, quality of life, and safety. Each dimension was evaluated using 50 metrics. You can view a breakdown of their methodology and grading scale here.
Number one ranked Virginia Beach scored 63.41, while Seattle followed not too far behind with 62.58. Among the major categories, Seattle ranked first in economy, along with education and health, fourth in quality of life, thirty-fourth in safety, and fiftieth in affordability. Other categories where Seattle ranked in the top five were “Highest Income Growth,” coming in second behind Washington D.C., and placing fifth in “Highest Percentage of Insured Population.” Seattle tied for first place for “Most Coffee Shops per Capita” with New York City, San Francisco, and Portland.
Urban centers are growing at an unprecedented rate, nearly twice that of the data recorded during the opening decade of the 21st century. In a news release earlier this year, the U.S. Census Bureau listed Seattle as the fifth-fastest growing large U.S. city by population increase. From July 1, 2015 to July 1, 2016, Seattle had a net growth of nearly 21,000 people, a 3.1 percent increase.