Annapolis Named to Best Small Cities List

Great restaurants. Affordable houses. Quality schools.

Annapolis has all of those qualities, and more. Which helped it land at No. 71 nationally on WalletHub’s ranking of the “2015’s Best & Worst Small Cites in America.”

The financial services company compared 1,268 small cities based on 22 metrics, ranging from economic health, affordability, and quality of life.

Among Maryland cities, Rockville ranked highest on the list, coming in at No. 23. The city earned high marks for the number of pediatricians per 100,000 residents, number of restaurants per capita, and percent of residents with a bachelor’s degree or higher.

READ ALSO:

• Annapolis Named One of Best Towns in America
• Annapolis Among Top Ten Best All-American Vacations
• Annapolis One of Snobbiest Cities in Maryland: List
• ‘Most Redneck’ Towns In Maryland: Where Do Anne Arundel Towns Rank?
• America’s Best Towns for the Holidays Includes Annapolis

Other Montgomery County cities were ranked much lower including: Bethesda at No. 128, Gaithersburg at No. 305, Potomac at No. 400, North Bethesda at No. 487, Germantown at No. 817, Silver Spring at No. 823, and Montgomery Village at No. 1021.

WalletHub’s analysts compared 1,268 cities with a population size between 25,000 and 100,000 residents.

The website’s take on the rankings: “America’s little towns commonly attract newcomers or returnees for the same reasons: tighter communities, less competition, shorter commutes and an actual backyard with a white picket fence. And from a purely financial standpoint, living in a small city creates a sense of greater wealth because of cheaper cost of living — one of the main draws for in-movers, especially those seeking to raise a family.”