Cedar Rapids ranks 14th on a new quality of life survey released by Portfolio.com.
“The study compared 109 medium-sized markets with populations between 250,000 and 750,000 in 20 statistical categories,” the online publication said. “Markets given the highest scores have healthy economies, moderate costs of living, light traffic, impressive housing stocks and high-powered educational systems.”
The top-20 cities are:
1. Boulder, Colo.
2. Provo, Utah
3. Fort Collins, Colo.
4. Madison, Wis.
5. Ogden, Utah
6. Holland, Mich.
7. Colorado Springs, Colo.
8. Ann Arbor, Mich.
9. Des Moines, Iowa
10. Manchester, N.H.
11. Lincoln, Nebr.
12. Boise, Idaho
13. Trenton, N.J.
14. Cedar Rapids, Iowa
15. Portland, Maine
16. Norwich, Conn.
17. Huntsville, Ala.
18. Anchorage, Alaska
19. Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
20. Durham, N.C.
Cedar Rapids also had one of the lowest commute times on the list, with 19 minutes. Only Lubbock, Texas, Lincoln, Nebraska, Wichita, Kansas and Erie Pennsylvania reported shorter commute times.
Portfolio.com based their quality-of-life rankings on data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2006-2008 American Community Survey, which was released late last year.
For a complete ranking of all 109 communities, please visit www.portfolio.com.