The Thesis
The metrics used to rank "best places to live" measure how well a place works for people who can afford to leave. That's not the same thing as a good place to live.
Orinda, CA has excellent schools and a $252k median income—and the highest "Very High Fire Hazard" acreage of any Contra Costa city, with a largely broken insurance market. Traditional rankings miss this.
This platform asks harder questions.
The 8 Factors
1. Schools & Education (4 metrics)
- Public school opt-in rate - Do families choose public schools?
- Per-pupil spending - Are schools adequately funded?
- Student-teacher ratio - Class sizes matter
- Bachelor's attainment - Educational attainment of adults
2. Safety (2 metrics)
- Violent crime per 100k - Can kids play outside?
- Property crime per 100k - Is your home secure?
3. Cost of Living (7 metrics)
- Housing cost burden - % of income on housing
- Childcare burden - % of income on childcare
- Utilities burden - % of income on utilities
- Food burden - % of income on food
- Total family burden - Combined cost pressure
- Median home price - Can teachers afford to buy?
- Annual childcare cost - The "second mortgage"
4. Climate & Environment (4 metrics)
- Wildfire risk score - Will insurance markets collapse?
- Flood risk score - Is your property at risk?
- Air quality (AQI) - Can you breathe safely?
- Extreme heat days - Climate livability
5. Healthcare (3 metrics)
- Uninsured rate - Healthcare access
- Cancer rate per 100k - Health outcomes
- Obesity rate - Community health
6. Jobs & Economy (5 metrics)
- Unemployment rate - Job availability
- Median household income - Earning potential
- 5-year job growth - Economic trajectory
- Industry diversity - Economic resilience
- Median professional wage - Career opportunities
7. Community & Social Health (4 metrics)
- Walk score - Car-optional living
- Transit score - Public transportation access
- Voter turnout - Civic engagement
- Third places per 10k - Community gathering spaces
8. Housing Supply & Availability (5 metrics)
- Vacancy rate - Is housing available? (optimal 4–7%)
- Renter % of households - Owner/renter market balance
- Renter cost burden - % of renters paying >30% of income on housing
- Single-family % of housing stock - Proxy for zoning restrictiveness
- 5-year population growth - Is demand outpacing supply?
Data Sources
All data is from authoritative public sources:
- Census ACS 2023 - Demographics, income, housing costs, vacancy rate, renter burden, housing stock composition, population growth (DP04, DP05 tables)
- Census Geocoder - FIPS place codes for ACS API queries
- NCES ELSI - Per-pupil spending, student-teacher ratio
- FBI NIBRS - Crime statistics
- BLS (Bureau of Labor Statistics) - Employment, wages, job growth
- Zillow ZHVI - Median home prices
- Walk Score - Walkability and transit
- CDC (BRFSS & PLACES) - Health outcomes, obesity
- EPA & NOAA - Air quality (AQI), extreme heat days
- First Street Foundation - Wildfire and flood risk scores
- Child Care Aware of America - Annual childcare costs by state
- IMLS - Libraries and civic spaces per capita
Our Approach
What Makes This Different
- Affordability ratio - We calculate median home price ÷ median income to show if teachers can afford to live where they teach
- Total family burden - We sum housing + childcare + utilities + food to show the real cost pressure on families
- Climate risk - We don't ignore wildfire and flood risks that traditional rankings miss
- Public school opt-in - We measure whether families choose public schools, not just test scores
- Civic engagement - Voter turnout and third places matter for community health
What We Don't Do
- We don't create composite scores that hide tradeoffs
- We don't ignore climate risks to boost rankings
- We don't assume higher income = better city
- We don't cherry-pick data to make cities look good
Limitations
- Growing dataset - Currently 30 cities; expanding based on nominations
- Snapshot in time - Data is from 2023; cities change
- Averages hide variation - Neighborhoods within cities vary significantly
- Quantitative focus - Culture, arts, and intangibles are harder to measure
- No perfect city - Every city has tradeoffs; we make them visible