2018 Best Places To Live: Las Vegas Makes US News Rankings

LAS VEGAS, NV - U.S. News & World Report has released its 2018 Best Places to Live in the United States ranking. Las Vegas made the list.

Sin City came in at 80th place in the ranking of the country's 125 largest metropolitan areas. Affordability, the availability of jobs and quality of life are all things people consider when deciding where to move. U.S. News & World Report’s 2018 Best Places to Live in the United States shows people are moving to the South, Western states and the Midwest.

The list said this about Las Vegas:

Las Vegas has a reputation as an adults-only playground thanks to an iconic stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard. However, just beyond the Strip, residents enjoy pleasant suburban communities, world-class restaurants and beautiful parks undisturbed by the glare of neon lights. Cultural institutions like the Smith Center for the Performing Arts and numerous museums offer quiet alternatives to the Strip, while nearby state and national parks – including Lake Mead, Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, Spring Mountain Ranch State Park and Valley of Fire State Park – offer ample opportunities to enjoy the outdoors.

Each city was given a score of 1-10 based on desirability, value, job market, quality of life, and net migration, as well as an overall score. Las Vegas was given an overall score of 6.3. In comparison the best place to live, Austin, Texas, was given an overall score of 7.7.

Austin was named the No. 1 best place to live for the second consecutive year. Colorado Springs, Colorado, took the No. 2 spot, bumping Denver, Colorado, to No. 3, and Des Moines, Iowa, came in at No. 4. Fayetteville, Arkansas, came in at No. 5 for the second year in a row. Rounding out the top 10 were Portland, Oregon; Huntsville, Alabama; Washington, D.C.; Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Seattle, Washington.

“When deciding on a place to settle down, it’s important to understand that where a person lives can impact their well-being,” Kim Castro, executive editor at U.S. News, said in a news release. “U.S. News created the Best Places to Live to highlight areas across the country that have the characteristics residents are looking for, including steady job growth and affordability. The top-ranked places are areas where citizens can feel the most fulfilled socially, physically and financially.”

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To come up with the 2018 Best Places to Live ranking, U.S. News looked at data from the Census Bureau, FBI and Department of Labor. The various qualities residents look for — for example, the job market, affordability and quality of life — were weighted according to the results of the of a public survey in which 2,500 random internet users in 125 metro areas were asked where they would prefer to live.

Americans were less interested in the number of people moving in or out of a metro area and the strength of the job market than they were in overall quality of life and affordability.

Though its population didn’t grow as quickly in 2016 as it did in previous years, Austin ranked high on the desirability survey. Colorado Springs got high marks for quality of life and a booming job market, and the Gallup Sharecare Well-Being Index shows residents generally feel fulfilled socially, physically and financially, and U.S. News said its data shows high school students in Colorado Springs are sufficiently prepared for college and face a better job market than others did in recent years. Des Moines moved up five spots on the list because of a decent cost of living, quality of life and increased job prospects.

Several cities were newcomers to the top 10, including Portland, which saw the largest jump in desirability of all cities on the list. Though the quality of life, net migration and job market rankings in Minneapolis didn’t change, more survey respondents expressed a desire to move their than they have in previous years.

U.S. News said one of the biggest surprises was Huntsville, which has the second-largest research park in the country in Cummings Research Park, which houses several major employers, including Science Applications International Corp., Northrop Grumman Corp. and the University of Alabama, all of which offer jobs in the burgeoning science, technology, engineering and math fields. The U.S. Army also employs a number of residents at Redstone Arsenal, where NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center is located. Huntsville also boasts the highest value score out of all the places on the list.

Read what the list said about Las Vegas here.

Read the full list here.

Patch reporter Beth Dalbey contributed to this report. Image via Gert Hocmuth/Shutterstock.