SmartAsset is out with its 2018 edition of its ranking of the quality of life in state capital cities. Here's what it found:
Capital cities in the United States share many of the same characteristics. Housing the state and local city bureaucracy, capital cities often times have stronger economies than other cities in the state. The best state capitals also tend to have strong local histories that broaden the local cultural offerings for residents. With that increased interest can come some problems, however. Many state capitals suffer from rising housing costs that leave residents unable to build their savings. That hurts the overall quality of life.
Below we look at these and other factors to rank the most livable capital cities in America. Specifically, we compare the cities across metrics like discretionary income, unemployment rate, dining and entertainment establishment rate, violent crime rate and property crime rate. Check out our data and methodology below to see where we got our data and how we put it together.
This is SmartAsset’s fifth annual study of the best state capitals. Check out the 2017 version here.
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Among its key findings: New England capitals are livable – of the six New England states – Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island and Connecticut, three have capitals that rank in the top 10. In fact, only Hartford, Connecticut’s capital, has a poor ranking. It comes in 49th. Seven of last year’s top 10 found spots in this year’s edition. The three cities that lost their spots in the top 10 were Annapolis, Maryland; Pierre, South Dakota; and Boise, Idaho, which all ranked between 10 and 15.
