Philadelphia ranked No. 118 in U.S. News & World Report’s 2020 ranking of the top 150 best places to live in the United States, falling 16 spots from last year’s report.
Philadelphia has fallen in the rankings for the last two years, ranking No. 98 in 2018 and No. 102 in 2019. The city ranked the third lowest of the eight Pennsylvania cities that made the list, falling behind Harrisburg, Lancaster, Pittsburgh, Reading, and York.
Philadelphia also ranked toward the bottom of the list of 21 “megacities” with over 2.5 million people. Chicago, Ill., New York City, N.Y., and Miami, Fla. were the only megacities to rank lower.
The top three cities included Boulder and Denver, Colo., and Austin, Texas.
To calculate its rankings, U.S. News evaluated the 150 most populated metropolitan areas in five distinct categories, including job market strength, housing affordability, quality of life, desirability, and whether people are moving to or away from each metro area. Category weighting was determined using a survey asking Americans to vote for the categories they find most important when deciding where to live.
Overall, Philadelphia scored 6.2 out of 10 points. The city's lowest score was quality of life at 5.6, and its highest score was job market strength at 7.0. The average annual salary in Philadelphia is $56,170 and the unemployment rate was 4.1% in 2019. U.S. News cited the University of Pennsylvania and Thomas Jefferson University Hospitals as some of the largest employers in the city.
Philadelphia also ranked No. 43 in best places to retire and No. 6 in Pennsylvania.
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