Mapping America's Quality-of-Life

[Coolface Sock #42069]

Grew up in a C. Now live and work in an A.

[heatcharger]

According to that county ranking, I live in #10/13 and spend a fair amount of time in #9. All A+ counties.

[Confused Democrat]

A

I live in Palm Beach County.

[RINO Tom]

Live in A, from B.

[angus]

I actually found a listing for Manheim Township, where I live within Lancaster County, as well. 

Public Schools A+
Crime & Safety B
Housing B+
Nightlife B+
Good for Families A+
Diversity B+
Jobs B+
Weather B-
Cost of Living C+
Health & Fitness A-
Outdoor Activities A
Commute A

Overall Niche Grade A


Here's my own ranking for Manheim Township:

Public Schools A-
Crime & Safety A
Housing B+
Nightlife B
Good for Families A+
Diversity B+
Jobs B+
Weather A
Cost of Living B
Health & Fitness A-
Outdoor Activities B
Commute C-

Overall Niche Grade A-

[bagelman]

A-, lowest grade is in crime because of the bad parts of Akron at C, and C- in weather. Weather of course can be relative, a website called Area Vibes keeps assuming hot sunny and dry weather is good. I think it's bad.

[bagelman]

Yep, Maricopa County AZ has "A+ weather" according to this site, which as a result can be safely ignored. Not sure why living in the middle of the blazing desert is so desirable and wanted these days. 

Also East St. Louis has a C-, when any site worth its weight in salt would give it an F.

[DavidB.]

Interesting how much of the Pacific Northwest is graded lower than a lot of the Midwest, even excluding the Great Plains. Wouldn't expect that.

[angus]

Interesting how much of the Pacific Northwest is graded lower than a lot of the Midwest, even excluding the Great Plains. Wouldn't expect that.

They use a weighted average.  (I used unweighted in my rankings mostly because I'm lazy, but also because I can't justify all of their weightings.  Some subjectivity always creeps into such decisions.)

Their big weighting (15%) is from local educational attainment.  The next three are public schools (10%), cost of living (10%), and housing (10%).  The upper midwest (IA, MN, WI) and New England (ME, NH, VT, CT, RI, MA) generally have the best public schools on average, when ranked by achievement scores and the like, and those areas have generally high educational attainment, so the weighting accounts for much of that. 

What strikes initially me about the map is that relatively densely populated areas are blue, and less densely populated areas are not.  Consider the ten most populous cities in the US.  All of them are in the blue-colored counties.  I think that has a great deal to do with their algorithm as well.  While they are not weighted as heavily, jobs (7.5%), diversity (7.5%), nightlife (5%), and activities (5%) all show up in the algorithm.  There's also a totally subjective "composite overall score" (5%, reported by users) that shows up.  Collectively those things would give the edge to cities and densely populated areas over rural areas and less densely populated areas.

Finally, there's a weather grade (5%) which gives an edge to sunny climates.  This may also help explain another striking feature of the map:  Red Alaska.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

It's upsetting that they would grade the PNW so poorly.

[RINO Tom]

Interesting how much of the Pacific Northwest is graded lower than a lot of the Midwest, even excluding the Great Plains. Wouldn't expect that.

We hadn't garnered our dumb-racist-WWC reputation ... well, at all ... before the 2016 election, you see.

[Coolface Sock #42069]

Yep, Maricopa County AZ has "A+ weather" according to this site, which as a result can be safely ignored. Not sure why living in the middle of the blazing desert is so desirable and wanted these days. 

Also East St. Louis has a C-, when any site worth its weight in salt would give it an F.

There is more to Madison and St. Clair Counties than East St. Louis.

[RINO Tom]

Birthplace: Peoria, IL

(NOTE: Parents almost certainly would have sent me to a school in nearby Woodford County, which was an A on the map)

Overall: B+
Commute: A
Diversity: A
Nightlife: A-
Health & Fitness: B+
Cost of Living: B+
Families: B
Outdoor Activities: B
Housing: B-
Jobs: B-
Weather: B-
Crime: C
Public Schools: C (In classic Peoria fashion, ranges from A+ to C-)

Current City: Iowa City, IA

Overall: A+
Commute: A+
Nightlife: A
Public Schools: A
Families: A
Health & Fitness: A
Diversity: A-
Jobs: B+
Cost of Living: B-
Outdoor Activities: B-
Crime: B-
Housing: B-
Weather: B-

[RINO Tom]

Yep, Maricopa County AZ has "A+ weather" according to this site, which as a result can be safely ignored. Not sure why living in the middle of the blazing desert is so desirable and wanted these days. 

Also East St. Louis has a C-, when any site worth its weight in salt would give it an F.

There is more to Madison and St. Clair Counties than East St. Louis.

Including some REALLY nice suburbs.

[bagelman]

Yep, Maricopa County AZ has "A+ weather" according to this site, which as a result can be safely ignored. Not sure why living in the middle of the blazing desert is so desirable and wanted these days. 

Also East St. Louis has a C-, when any site worth its weight in salt would give it an F.

There is more to Madison and St. Clair Counties than East St. Louis.

Including some REALLY nice suburbs.

I directly typed in ESL though, not the county.

[Pessimistic Antineutrino]

B county, A town.

[JA]

Yep, Maricopa County AZ has "A+ weather" according to this site, which as a result can be safely ignored. Not sure why living in the middle of the blazing desert is so desirable and wanted these days. 

Also East St. Louis has a C-, when any site worth its weight in salt would give it an F.

There is more to Madison and St. Clair Counties than East St. Louis.

Including some REALLY nice suburbs.

I directly typed in ESL though, not the county.

Niche does not use an F rating for any location. D ratings seem to be reserved solely for counties. For cities, towns, and suburbs, C- appears to be the lowest possible rating.

[Ban my account ffs!]

Where I grew up is an A, where I live now is an A+