These Washington suburbs are among best small cities in US to live, report says

Four Washington suburbs are some of the best small U.S. cities to live in, according to a new report from WalletHub.

Taking the top spot in the U.S. overall was Sammamish, the report says. Other Washington suburbs were ranked in the top 2 percentile as well, including Redmond, Kirkland and Bothell.

The next top four cities in the U.S. were Lexington, Massachusetts; Carmel, Indiana; Needham, Massachusetts; and Sugar Land, Texas.

The report, titled “2020’s Best Small Cities in America,” compares more than 1,200 cities with populations between 25,000 and 100,000.

WalletHub scored the cities based on five key elements: affordability, economic health, education and health, quality of life, and safety. The personal finance company then evaluated those categories using 43 criteria and graded the cities on a 100-point scale, “with a score of 100 representing the most favorable conditions for small-city residents.”

Sammamish had a population of 65,892 as of July 1, 2019, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. It scored No. 1 in economic health, 11 in education and health, 34 in safety, 146 in affordability, and 1,171 in quality of life.

All the Washington suburbs listed in the report were strongest in the economic health and education and health categories.

Economic health was evaluated through factors like population growth, job growth, share of population living in poverty, the unemployment rate, etc. Education and health considered the city’s school-system quality, average COVID-19 cases in the last seven days per 100,000, share of insured population, etc.

Another Washington city that was recognized in the report was Bellingham, which tied for the city with the most coffee shops per capita.

This story was originally published October 20, 2020 at 11:12 AM with the headline "These Washington suburbs are among best small cities in US to live, report says."