Naperville Among Country's Best Cities To Live In: Report

NAPERVILLE, IL — Naperville is a great place to live. And, if you needed any more confirmation, you've got it: The city came in at No. 7 on 24/7 Wall St.'s 2017 list of America's 50 Best Cities To Live. Of course, at least one study disagrees with that ranking: Niche.com recently named Naperville the second-best city to live in nationwide. And the National Council for Home Safety and Security ranked Naperville at No. 41 on its list of "Top 100 Safest Cities In America."

24/7 Wall St., which delivers financial news and opinion online, considered "roughly" 590 cities in the U.S. Census Bureau with a population of more than 65,000 people in 2016. The top performing city in each county was considered when it came to ranking, and data was collected in these nine categories: Crime, demography, economy, education, environment, health, housing, infrastructure, and leisure.

Naperville — "one of the most educated of U.S. cities" — snagged the No. 7 spot with the following data:

• Population: 148,063
• Median home value: $421,400 (top 25%)
• Poverty rate: 4.1% (bottom 10%)
• Pct. with at least a bachelor’s degree: 69.2% (top 10%)

The site had this to say about the jewel of DuPage County:

Naperville high schoolers test better than students in any city in Illinois other than Arlington Heights, and 69.2% of adults have at least a bachelor’s degree — more than twice the 31.3% of adults nationwide with similar education. Many of the city’s most educated residents likely commute to high-paying jobs in neighboring Chicago. The typical Naperville household earns $116,482 a year, the 12th most of any city nationwide.

Naperville is largely devoid of the violent crime that plagues much of the Chicago metro area. In 2016, there were just 62 violent crimes reported per 100,000 residents in Naperville, far less than the national rate of 386 incidents per 100,000 Americans and among the least of any U.S. city.

Naperville was the only Illinois city to make the top 50. Carmel, Indiana, not far from Indianapolis, came in at No. 1, and Naperville beat out O'Fallon, Missouri, which came in at No. 8. (For more information on this and other neighborhood stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

Find 24/7 Wall St.'s full 50 Best Cities To Live rankings here.

More on Naperville's accolades:

Naperville Is Country's 2nd Best City To Live In (Niche.com)

Naperville Among 100 Safest U.S. Cities (National Council for Home Safety and Security)

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