Politics & Government
Best and Worst Small Cities in New York: Is White Plains on the List?
WalletHub has ranked 1,268 small cities in the United States and some Hudson Valley communities are included.
Editor’s Note: Patch is re-running this popular story in case you missed it the first time around.
Written by BRIAN MCCREADY (Patch Staff)
WalletHub is back with one of its most popular annual rankings — the Best and Worst Small Cities in America.
WalletHub, a personal finance website, studied 1,268 small cities in the United States with a population between 25,000 to 100,000 in its 2015 rankings.
It examined 22 different metrics, which are divided up into four categories including: affordability, economic health, education and health, and quality of life.
Affordability includes: housing costs, cost of living and home ownership rate.
Economic health includes: unemployment rate, median household income, population and income growth.
Education and health includes: quality schools, percentage of residents with bachelor’s degree, percentage of population with health insurance coverage, and the number of pediatricians.
Quality of life includes: commute time, hours worked in a week, number of restaurants, bars, museums, restaurants, coffee shops, fitness centers, and a community’s crime rate.
The best small city in the United States, according to WalletHub, is located in Princeton, N.J., followed by Littleton, Colorado; Dublin, Ohio; Brookfield, Wisconsin; and Leafwood, Kansas.
The worst 10 small cities in America are all located in California, according to WalletHub.
How did New York fare?
The Empire State entered the list with Saratoga Springs placing 84th out of 1,268 small cities across the United States, and the city was ranked 15th best in the nation in the category of quality of life. (For definitions of the categories see above)
Here are the rest of New York’s small city rankings. Hudson Valley Patch communities are in bold, and their highest category is listed:
No. 257, Brighton
No. 265 (Tie), Tonawanda
No. 299, Irondequoit
No. 334, West Seneca
No. 361, North Tonawanda
No. 392, Albany
No. 394, Ithaca
No. 429, Poughkeepsie
No. 471, Auburn
No. 535, Rome
No. 683, Lindenhurst
No. 697, Elmira
No. 723, White Plains, which ranked 134th for Economic Health
No. 727, Smithtown
No. 743, Levittown
No. 749, Watertown
No. 773, West Islip
No. 776 (Tie), Hicksville
No. 790, Plainview
No. 810, Cheektowaga
No. 832, New City, which ranked 292nd in Economic Health
No. 861, Utica
No. 862, Binghamton
No. 863, Franklin Square
No. 868, Middletown
No. 889, Deer Park
No. 892, Niagara Falls
No. 895, Commack
No. 938, Troy
No. 940, Harrison, which ranked 224th in Economic Health
No. 944, Jamestown
No. 987, Schenectady
No. 991, Valley Stream
No. 993, Long Beach
No. 996, Oceanside
No. 1,016, Holbrook
No. 1,025, Port Chester, which ranked 303rd in Economic Health
No. 1,042, Shirley
No. 1,053, Bay Shore
No. 1,093, Freeport
No. 1,096, Huntington Station
No. 1,101, Ossining
No. 1,129, Glen Cove
No. 1,130, West Babylon
No. 1,145, Elmont
No. 1,157, Brentwood
No. 1,158, Newburgh
No. 1,163, New Rochelle, which ranked 542nd in Economic Health
No. 1,179, Coram
No. 1,181, Central Islip
No. 1,222, Mount Vernon, which ranked 606th in Education and Health
No. 1,227, Spring Valley, which ranked 743rd in Economic Health
No. 1,245, Hempstead
Other notable national stats from the report:
Key Stats
- The homeownership rate in Granger, Ind., is 5 times higher than in Union City, N.J.
- The percentage of residents below poverty level in Statesboro, Ga., is 25 times higher than in Trumbull, Conn.
- The percentage of residents with a bachelor’s degree or higher in Bethesda, Md., is 26 times higher than in Soledad, Calif.
- The average commute time in Lake Elsinore, Calif., is four times higher than in Fort Hood, Texas.
- The mean hours worked per week in Fort Hood, Texas, are two times higher than in East Lansing, Mich.
- The number of coffee shops per 100,000 residents in Santa Monica, Calif., is 118 times higher than in Pharr, Tex.
- The percentage of millennial newcomers in Hoboken, N.J., is 19 times higher than in Sun City, Ariz.
- The property-crime rate in Myrtle Beach, S.C., is 61 times higher than in Winona, Minn.
Read the full WalletHub report here.
Patch Editor Alfred Branch contributed to this report.
Photo: Tibbets Park, White Plains. Photo credit: Flickr user Rich Mitchell via Creative Commons
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