BOSTON — If you have a family, Boston may not be the best place to live, according to a recent study.
Deciding where your kids are going to grow up is an important task for any parent. Safety, housing cost, schools and child friendliness are the most common aspects to consider while town hunting.
Apartment List analyzed these four characteristics in order to determine the top 10 best cities for families. The results may surprise you.
Some of the study's highlights:
- Boston ranked #435 out of 474 cities in our study
- It's best category was safety, where it had a score of 51%
- In the child friendliness category, Boston received a score of 4%
- Allen, TX ranked #1 overall. Indianapolis and Dallas suburbs performed exceptionally well
When determining the level of safety in a specific city, Apartment List used data gathered by the FBI to calculate the number of violent crimes and property crimes per 100,000 people. In terms of housing cost, the percentage of median renter income for a two bedroom apartment was determined through census data. The level of the public high schools were ranked based on graduation rate in the area. And lastly, child friendliness was determined by the number of children in a certain city. In order to determine this, Apartment List calculated the percentage of residents under the age of 18 in each location.
Newton is the first Massachusetts city to make the list at 69, followed by Somerville at 114. Unfortunately, the city of Boston didn’t do so hot. Out of the 474 cities researched, Boston came in at number 435.
Five of the top ten are located in Texas and another two are located in Indiana! Here are your top ten:
1. Allen, TX
2. Fishers, IN
3. Carmel, IN
4. Frisco, TX
5. San Ramon, California
6. McKinney, TX
7. O’Fallon, MO
8. Flower Mound, TX
9. Naperville, IL
10. Pearland, TX
Cox Media Group
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