The 50 best places to live in America

1. Austin, Texas

Population: 1,889,094

Average annual salary: $49,560

Quality of life: 7.3

Value: 7.3

The capital of Texas gains about 50 new residents daily, many seeking out the city’s “music, outdoor spaces, and cultural institutions,” said a local expert.

Austin is beloved for its live music scene and is host to some of the country’s biggest music and culture festivals, including South by Southwest and Austin City Limits. The city was nicknamed “Silicon Hills” in the 1990s for its status as “among the top areas for venture capital investment in the country.”

U.S. News & World Report releases a list of the best places to live in America every year.
The best places to live 2017 ranking looked at five metrics: job market, value, quality of life, desirability, and net migration.
The best place to live in America is Austin, Texas, followed by Denver, Colorado.
When deciding where to put down roots, many factors are in the eye of the beholder, such as climate, politics, or proximity to extended family.

Other aspects are coveted by nearly everybody: affordable housing, access to well-paying jobs, a low cost of living, good schools, and quality healthcare. In its ranking of the best places to live in America for 2017, U.S. News & World Report gathered data on these crucial components for the 100 most populous US cities.

They then categorized the data into five indexes for each city – job market, value, quality of life, desirability, and net migration – to definitively rank these major metro areas. You can read U.S. News’ full methodology here.

Scores for “value,” a blend of annual household income and cost of living, and “quality of life,” which accounts for crime, college readiness, commute, and other factors, are included below on a 10-point scale, as well as the city’s population and median annual salary.