Best — And Worst — Places To Raise A Family In California: Report

Whether you are currently expecting or already have children, deciding where to raise your family is an important decision. From child care to cost of living, there are lots of factors to consider.

Here to help you choose the perfect community to call "home," a new report by WalletHub ranked the best and worst places to raise a family.

<<Also see: Best & Worst Places To Retire In California >>

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: family fun, health and safety, education and child care, affordability and socio-economics.

So how did California cities rank?

Fremont in the San Francisco Bay Area 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, 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.

Irvine in Orange County was the next highest ranked city in California, coming in as the ninth-best place in the county to raise a family, according to the report. Irvine has the fewest violent crimes per 1,000 residents at 0.56, which is 32.4 times fewer than in St. Louis, 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, 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.

Fremont and Irvine were the only California cities to make the report's top 10 places to raise a family.

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.

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.

So where is the best place to raise a family in the country? Overland Park, according to WalletHub. (Get Patch real-time email alerts for the latest news from your California neighborhood. And iPhone users: Check out Patch's new app.)

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)

Also see:

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• 13 Calif. Restaurants Among 100 'Most Scenic' In America, New Ranking Says
  

Photo: Flickr/CreativeCommons/Shauna Hawkins