Photo Credit: ImogenCaroline
TownGlance.com provides data on over 12,000 places in the US and scores them based on a variety of metrics. These include: climate, employment opportunities, job compensation, transportation options, demographic diversity, cost-of-living, and cultural destinations. This data is meant to help you determine the best places to live in the US according to your unique preferences.
For our very first blog post we’ll list the top 20 communities based on their TownGlance scores, which are specifically calculated with millennials in mind. Note that these places represent the top 0.1% of places in the country so there is little meaningful differences between them in terms of quality. Click on each place name to see its full place profile.
The following are the best of the best places to live in the United States…
SeaTac places first among the 12,000+ communities in the US with 2,500 or more residents. The city of just under 30,000 is home to the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in King County, WA. Reasons for its top score include: excellent mobility (highway, light rail, bus, in addition to the airport), excellent access to well-paying jobs, an extremely diverse population, and a moderate climate.
Also located in King County, just a few miles from SeaTac, Tukwila boasts nearly all of the same quality-of-life advantages.
Located at the northern tip of Alameda County in the San Francisco Bay area, the mid-size city of Albany boasts an excellent quality-of-life with an great climate and a plethora of arts, recreation, and cultural amenities.
Berkeley is Albany’s much larger and more famous neighbor to the south and east. The city is home to one of the most lauded educational institutions in the country – the University of California, Berkeley – and a large number of cultural institutions.
Moving even further south in the Los Angeles metro area we find the small community of East Pasadena. Like much of the region, the cdp boasts a nearly “ideal” climate with temperate temperatures year round and plenty of sunny days.
Headed back up to the San Francisco Bay Area, the city of Mountain View is located in the heart of “Silicon Valley” in Santa Clara County. Tech companies dominate the city’s economy, particularly Google (Alphabet) which has its headquarters in Mountain View.
Home of the LA Galaxy MLS soccer team and temporary home of the Los Angeles Chargers, Carson is a diverse cultural nexus in the Los Angeles metro area.
The third place on this list in Alameda County, the town of San Leandro is a large, mostly-residential suburb with tree-lined neighborhoods and over 20 public parks. The town is one of the most diverse communities in the nation. Asians, Blacks, Whites, and Hispanics all account for a significant share of the populace. One-third of all residents were born in other countries.
Santa Clara is another Silicon Valley hub and is home to many corporate headquarters including: AMD, McAfee, and Intel. The city is also home to the California’s Great America theme park, Santa Clara Convention Center, and San Francisco 49ers NFL franchise.
Duarte is a city located at the foot of the San Gabriel mountains, not far from East Pasadena. The mid-sized suburb boasts a well-balanced quality-of-life with an excellent climate, great access to employment, and strong culture and diversity.
Rounding out the top 20…
There is a clear relationship between geographic location and TownGlance score, at least for the top-scoring places. 19 out of the 20 places below are located on the West Coast. This is primarily due to the fact that all of these places scored very highly in the Climate category. The moderate climate of the West Coast is closest to the sought-after “ideal,” but this is obviously subjective. If hot summers and cold winters are your thing, you can use the TG Place Finder to find your personalized best place. One CDP which includes a military base – Camp Pendleton CDP – was excluded from this list due to the obvious residential restrictions.
Unlike other “best communities” lists where “best” typically translates to “wealthiest,” TownGlance uses a much broader selection of metrics that don’t necessarily correlate with wealth. (We notably do not include crime statistics or school rankings and housing costs have a negative relationship with TownGlance scores). However, we do include some economic factors such as wage growth, unemployment (pre-COVID), and job growth in our scores. For more information, please see our Ratings Guide page.