With wedding season over and many couples looking to start a family and put down roots in places of opportunity, the personal-finance website WalletHub conducted an in-depth analysis of 2016’s Best & Worst Cities for Families.
In order to determine the most family-friendly places in America, WalletHub’s analysts compared the 150 most populated cities across 36 key metrics. Our data set ranges from crime rates to school system rankings to housing costs.
| Best Cities for Families | Worst Cities for Families | ||||
| 1 | Overland Park, KS | 141 | Augusta, GA | ||
| 2 | Madison, WI | 142 | North Las Vegas, NV | ||
| 3 | Plano, TX | 143 | Shreveport, LA | ||
| 4 | Sioux Falls, SD | 144 | Fresno, CA | ||
| 5 | Virginia Beach, VA | 145 | Miami, FL | ||
| 6 | Lincoln, NE | 146 | Cleveland, OH | ||
| 7 | Aurora, IL | 147 | Hialeah, FL | ||
| 8 | Omaha, NE | 148 | Detroit, MI | ||
| 9 | Colorado Springs, CO | 149 | San Bernardino, CA | ||
| 10 | Fremont, CA | 150 | Birmingham, AL | ||
Best vs. Worst
- Madison, Wis., has the most playgrounds per 100,000 residents, 72.96, which is 155 times more than in San Bernardino, Calif., the city with the fewest, 0.47.
- Irvine, Calif., has the lowest violent-crime rate, 0.49, which is 40 times lower than in Detroit, the city with the highest, 19.89.
- Scottsdale, Ariz., has the highest median family annual income (adjusted for cost of living), $101,811, which is 3.5 times higher than in New York, the city with the lowest, $29,140.
- Fremont, Calif., has the lowest divorce rate, 12.2 percent, which is 3.4 times lower than in Cleveland, the city with the highest, 41.3 percent.
- Irvine, Calif., has the lowest percentage of families receiving food stamps, 2.99 percent, which is 16.4 times lower than in Detroit, the city with the highest, 48.90 percent.
- Overland Park, Kan., has the lowest percentage of families living below the poverty line, 3.9 percent, which is 8.9 times lower than in Detroit, the city with the highest, 34.8 percent.
