Tri-Cities rated one of best places in U.S. to raise kids
The Tri-Cities is ranked in the top 10 of the best communities in the U.S. for raising kids.
The personal finance advice website SmartAsset published its latest list this week of the best places to bring up kids in America.
They compared 200 of the largest U.S. metro areas on the percentage of the population who are children, housing costs as a percentage of income, concentration of children’s entertainment, high school graduation rate, air pollution, child poverty, percentage of the children without health insurance and the crime rate.
Based on those numbers, the site found seven of the 10 best communities were in the Midwest, particularly Wisconsin and Iowa.
The Tri-Cities was rated No. 9.
And it was the only metro area in the top 10 in a coastal state, said the site.
Here’s why the area ranked so high:
- Population is 24.0% children, the 10th-highest rate in the study.
- 12th overall for its low violent crime rate, with 195 incidents per 100,000 people.
- Housing costs as a percentage of income (18.8%) was in the top 50 of the study.
- High concentration of children’s entertainment establishments.
- 17th-best overall and second-best in the top 10 for its low percentage of children without health insurance, at just 2.12%.
However, the Tri-Cities had the lowest high school graduation rate at 76.6% of the 30 metro areas on the SmartAsset list.
Overall, Appleton, Wis., was No. 1 on the best places to raise kids.
The other metro areas in the top 10 were Green Bay, Cedar Rapids and Des Moines, Iowa, Fargo, N.D., Sioux Falls, S.D., Madison, Wis., Provo-Orem, Utah, and Ogden, Utah.
The only other metro area in the top 30 from the Northwest was Olympia-Tumwater, which ranked 26th.