Most Livable Small Cities in the U.S. '“ 2022 Edition

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Despite the perception that the COVID-19 pandemic sparked a mass migration out of cities, the data simply does not support that narrative. According to Pew Research, fewer people moved out of cities in 2020 compared with the years leading up to the pandemic. Approximately 4.9 million people left cities in 2020, which is less than the 5.4 million people who moved out of cities each year between 2016 and 2018. But while the mass exodus from large cities may have been overstated, many small cities are growing. A recent SmartAsset study found that five of the top 10 boomtowns in America have fewer than 100,000 residents. Keeping this in mind, we set out to identify the most livable small cities in the nation. SmartAsset analyzed data on 286 cities with between 65,000 and 100,000 residents, considering the following metrics: concentration of entertainment establishments, restaurants, bars and healthcare establishments, Gini coefficient (a measure of income inequality), home affordability, housing costs as a percentage of median income, poverty rate, unemployment rate, percentage of residents without health insurance and average commute time. For details on our data sources and how we put all the information together to create our final rankings, check out the Data and Methodology section below.

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