Best U.S. Small Cities 2019: Where Marlborough Ranked

MARLBOROUGH, MA — The personal finance site WalletHub this week released its 2019 Best Small Cities in America ranking, and only a handful of Massachusetts cities and towns — including Marlborough — made the list.

The list compared more than 1,200 cities across the nation with populations between 25,000 and 100,000 based on 42 key indicators of liveability — things like home ownership rate, the number of performing arts centers in the area, job growth, schools, safety, and more.

Each relevant metric was listed with its corresponding weight and the cities were subsequently graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the maximum small city experience.

Marlborough was one of the top cities in the country for education and health, coming in No. 27 out of 1,200. That category includes factors like high school graduation rates, longevity, and access to healthy food. But Marlborough did score poorly for affordability.

Here's how Marlborough compared with other local cities that made the list.

Framingham, Marlborough, and Milford were among the best ranked in Massachusetts. Cities like Holyoke, Brockton, and Lawrence were among the lowest ranked in the nation.

Leawood, Kansas ranked as the best small city in the nation, according to WalletHub, followed by Brentwood, Tennessee and Sammamish, Washington.

Bessemer, Alabama finished as the worst small city in the United States.

“Small-city life can be best for those who appreciate more wiggle room, fewer degrees of separation and shorter commutes, to name just a few advantages,” authors of the WalletHub study said.

Here are the top 10 overall small cities in the country:

1. Leawood, Kansas: 71.98
2. Brentwood, Tennessee: 71.53
3. Sammamish, Washington: 71.34
4. Melrose, Massachusetts: 70.7
5. Carmel, Indiana: 70.59
6. Lexington, Massachusetts: 70.55
7. Milton, Massachusetts: 70.46
8. Brookfield, Wisconsin: 70.38
9. Fair Lawn, New Jersey: 70.25
10. Cedar Park, Texas: 69.98

Patch editor Gus Saltonstall contributed to this article.