These CA Cities Ranked Among The Best Big Cities To Live In

CALIFORNIA – Three cities in California ranked among the top 10 best big cities in the U.S. to live in, according to a new report. The personal finance website WalletHub recently ranked America's 62 largest cities based on affordability, education and health, quality of life and safety.

San Francisco ranked fourth overall, followed by San Diego in fifth and San Jose in eighth. According to the report, all three cities scored well in education and health as well as economy. San Francisco and San Diego also earned top marks for quality of life, while San Diego and San Jose scored well in safety.

San Francisco ranked 25th in safety, while San Jose ranked 25th in quality of life. All three cities did not score well in affordability.

The top big city in America is Seattle, the study found, which ranked first in education and health as well as economy. The city also ranked sixth in quality of life.

Here are the top 10 big cities in the U.S. to live in:

1. Seattle, Washington
2. Virginia Beach, Virginia
3. Austin, Texas
4. San Francisco, California
5. San Diego, California
6. Honolulu, Hawaii
7. Portland, Oregon
8. San Jose, California
9. Colorado Springs, Colorado
10. New York, New York

If you eat out a lot and like variety in your food options, the study's authors say New York City and San Francisco are the places to be, with both ranking in the top five for restaurants per capita. The two cities also cracked the top five in most coffee shops per capita and best walk score.

If safety is what you are after, Virginia Beach or El Paso are the big cities for you.

Detroit ranked last among the biggest cities in the study, followed by Memphis and Cleveland.

Each city WalletHub looked at has at least 300,000 residents. In all, more than 50 factors were taken into account, with the highest weight given to cost of living. The study's authors looked at air quality, beaches per capita, violent crime rate, life expectancy, quality of public school systems, job opportunities, unemployment rate and homeownership rate.The sample considered only the city proper in each case and excluded cities in the surrounding metro area.

The data came from the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, FBI, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Council for Community and Economic Research, Chmura Economics & Analytics, TransUnion, Indeed, County Health Rankings, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, Walk Score, The Trust for Public Land, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, The Road Information Program, Environmental Protection Agency, Inrix, GreatSchools.org, Renwood RealtyTrac, Yelp and WalletHub's own research.

These are the California cities that made the rankings. National rankings are in parenthesis:

1. San Francisco (4)
2. San Diego (5)
3. San Jose (8)
4. Sacramento (24)
5. Riverside (34)
6. Los Angeles (36)
7. Anaheim (38)
8. Long Beach (43)
9. Bakersfield (45)
10. Oakland (46)
11. Fresno (47)
12. Santa Ana (53)

Click here to read the full report and see the complete rankings.

Also see:

• Best & Worst CA Cities For First-Time Home Buyers
• Best CA Beach Towns To Live In
• Best Cities To Live In CA

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