00:00So much of your environment and where you live impacts your health,
00:04has an impact on your family's health.
00:06It can influence how long you live.
00:09It's not just about the proximity to the hospital.
00:11It's about living in a place where people take care of each other.
00:19Fortune analyzed over 1,900 cities to come up with our list of best places to live for families.
00:26This is the third year that we're doing this list.
00:29Fortune partnered with a number of different data partners to look at five major categories
00:34from financial health, to livability, to aging resources, education, and family health care.
00:42And so we looked at nearly 200 different metrics,
00:45looking at things like the social determinants of health.
00:47How close does someone live to a grocery store?
00:50What's the walkability index like?
00:51What's the social isolation risk for older adults?
00:54We looked at housing prices, crime rates, diversity statistics.
00:57We were keeping in mind that our target audience is the sandwich generation.
01:02So the people who are raising kids, but they're also caring for aging parents
01:06or thinking about getting ready to care for aging parents.
01:09This cohort of people is growing in the U.S. because we are living longer simultaneously.
01:15We are having kids later in life.
01:17The number of people 65 and older is said to nearly double in the next 40 years.
01:22And so a lot of times people find themselves in that mixture
01:25of needing both resources for their aging parents when it comes to independent living homes
01:30or just resources for older adults to thrive independently,
01:33as well as really great schools for maybe their younger children.
01:37So we're looking at communities that are really investing in the resources
01:41that serve both the youngest and the oldest people who live there.
01:46A lot of edge cities and suburbs rose to the top of the list.
01:51It's not necessarily the biggest city in the state,
01:54but it tends to be a city that might have really easy access to that urban center.
01:58We also tend to have a fair amount of university towns on our list.
02:03That really makes sense to us because a university will provide
02:07not just the students of that university, but the wider city ample resources
02:10when it comes to community events, healthcare, hospitals even.
02:13So we have Ann Arbor, Michigan in our top 10 this year as well.
02:16That's home to the University of Michigan.
02:19Silver Spring is our number one city on the list.
02:22Silver Spring is located just six miles outside of Washington, D.C.,
02:26which is ideal if you commute there for work.
02:28And also the housing prices have come down just a little bit this year.
02:32Not only does it have the highest well-being index score of any city on our list,
02:37but it's also one of the most diverse cities on our list.
02:40The probability that two people in the city will be of different races is 73%.
02:46What makes Silver Spring, Maryland stand out is that they are investing
02:50in the evolving needs of their residents over time,
02:53trying to support older adults beyond just the four walls of a hospital.
02:57So, for example, they have outings for older adults that join the village.
03:01They can go to a theater. They can go to guest speakers.
03:04They can all go to a museum together.
03:05They can have volunteers that help them take notes at their doctor's appointments,
03:09help with transportation.
03:11Research has shown that the most defining factor of our happiness
03:15by the end of our lives is the strength of our relationships.
03:19And there's no more important factor of where to find those relationships
03:23than where you live in the communities in where you live.
03:25And so that's why we have this list at Fortune,
03:27because the best place to live for families is not just in the now.
03:30It's going to affect you in decades to come.
Comments