Fremont Named Best Place To Raise A Family In Calif.: Report

FREMONT, CA — For families who've chosen to live in Fremont, here's proof that you've made a good decision — a new report by WalletHub ranked the best and worst places to raise a family. Tops in the state of California: Fremont.

The report compared the family-friendliness of the 150 most populated cities across the country based on 41 key metrics that take into account family dynamics, such as the cost of housing and the quality of local schools. According to the finance website, the study's authors considered five key factors across the metrics, including family fun, health and safety, education and child care, affordability, and socio-economics.

Fremont came in as the fifth-best place in the country and the top place in California to build a nest. The city has the lowest divorce rate at 11.82 percent, which is 3.5 times lower than in Cleveland, Ohio, the city with the highest at 41.51 percent, according to the report.

Fremont also has the second lowest percentage of families living below poverty level, according to the study. Only Overland Park, Kansas, beat out the city.

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A city in Orange County also broke into the top ten nationally. Irvine came in ninth-best place. It has the fewest violent crimes per 1,000 residents at 0.56, which is 32.4 times fewer than in St. Louis, Missouri, the city with the most at 18.17.

In addition, Irvine has the lowest share of families receiving food stamps at 2.93 percent, which is 16.9 times lower than in Detroit, Michigan, the city with the highest at 49.57 percent, according to the study. Irvine also has the second lowest divorce rate, coming in after Fremont.

A total of 29 California cities were included in the rankings. San Jose, San Diego and Huntington Beach also landed in the top 25 at the 13th, 24th and 25th spots, respectively. The remaining California cities ranked in the bottom 125.

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San Bernardino ranked 148th, with only Detroit and Birmingham, Alabama, ranked as worse places to raise a family, landing in the 149th and 150th spots.

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As already mentioned, the city in Kansas has the lowest share of families living below the poverty line at 3.4 percent, which is 10.4 times lower than in Detroit, the city with the highest at 35.5 percent.

See how the rest of the California cities ranked, from best to worst, below. National rankings are in parenthesis.

Click here to view the complete rankings.

1. Fremont (5)
2. Irvine (9)
3. San Jose (13)
4. San Diego (24)
5. Huntington Beach (25)
6. Santa Rosa (28)
7. Rancho Cucamonga (36)
8. Sacramento (38)
9. San Francisco (39)
10. Santa Clarita (52)
11. Oceanside (56)
12. Chula Vista (59)
13. Modesto (73)
14. Garden Grove (79)
15. Glendale (81)
16. Bakersfield (87)
17. Fontana (91)
18. Los Angeles (92)
19. Oxnard (94)
20. Anaheim (95)
21. Ontario (111)
22. Oakland (115)
23. Long Beach (116)
24. Riverside (117)
25. Stockton (118)
26. Moreno Valley (122)
27. Fresno (130)
28. Santa Ana (136)
29. San Bernardino (148)

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--By Kristina Houck, Patch with additional writing by Bea Karnes, Patch; Image via Pixabay