Eight Montgomery Communities Named to Best Small Cities List

Eight Montgomery County communities are idyllic places to call home, with Rockville leading the pack. The city was ranked No. 23 nationally on WalletHub’s ranking of the “2015’s Best & Worst Small Cites in America.”

The best small city in America? Princeton, NJ.

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

Rockville ranks 1st for number of pediatricians per 100,000 residents, 55th in number of restaurants per capita, and 64th in percent of residents with a bachelor’s degree or higher.

What do you love most about Rockville? Tell us in comments.

Meanwhile, the city’s rankings for percent of residents below poverty level is 185th, income growth 274th, number of millennial newcomers 306th, and percent of population with health-insurance coverage 317th.

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.

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.