FILE: Sunshine (Photo by Andreas Rentz/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON – A new analysis from lawncare company LawnStarter recently released a new ranking of hundreds of cities across the U.S. based on their quality of life, and several cities in the DMV ranked near the top.
What we know:
The study looked at the 500 biggest cities in the U.S., then used thirteen different metrics to grade them on their quality of life. The categories included things like education, safety, access to healthcare and even mental health, weighing each category differently to come up with an overall score.
The top 10 US cities by quality of life
Big picture view:
Some states had much more representation than others, for both good and bad reasons. California, for example, had nearly 40 cities land in the top 100. Meanwhile, Texas had 30 in the bottom 100.
Here are the top 10:
- Newton, Massachusetts
- Woodbury, Minnesota
- Plymouth, Minnesota
- Pleasanton, California
- Redmond, Washington
- Castle Rock, Colorado
- Bellevue, Washington
- San Ramon, California
- Naperville, Illinois
- Carmel, Indiana
Based on LawnStarter’s data, cities like Newton and Cambridge ranked highly for their safety and education levels, while Plymouth, Minnesota, got such a high score because of things like its low unemployment.
Local perspective:
Here in the DMV, there were several cities at both the top and bottom of the list. Alexandria, Virginia, was the highest-rated, scoring the second-best score in education. Frederick, Maryland, ranked 47th, scoring big in housing and infrastructure and air and water quality. Virginia Beach was the only other city in the top 100, thanks to its access to healthcare, education level and recreational facilities.
Portsmouth, Virginia, was ranked all the way down in spot 431, with poor ratings in mental and physical health and economic stability. Baltimore just missed out on the bottom 100, ranked 399.
Here’s the full list, complete with rankings.
The Source: Information in this story is from LawnStarter’s “2025’s Leading Cities for Quality of Life” analysis.