The Best Places to Live for Families

Fortune

Fortune analyzed over 1,900 cities to come up with its annual list of 50 Best Places to Live for Families. Important factors include livability, financial health, education, diversity, walkability, crime rates, and more.

Transcript

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.

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