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Mid-size Metro Areas Ranked By Quality of Life

Several lifestyle qualities make mid-size metropolitan cities an attractive alternative to living in a big city. Mid-size metro areas have between 250,000 and 1 million people and account for only 20 percent of the U.S. population.  

A new bizjournals quality-of-life study ranked 124 mid-size metropolitan cities. Those with the highest scores had healthy economies, light traffic, moderate costs of living, impressive housing stocks and strong educational systems, reported G. Scott Thomas of bizjournals.

Provo, Utah, topped the list. Boulder, Colorado, came in second and Madison, Wisconsin, third.  Provo scored high its impressive inventory of big homes. It also has steady population growth, an unemployment rate typically two to three points below the national average, and a strong educational system.

The college town of Boulder stands out for its healthy entrepreneurial spirit (7 percent of the population, twice the national average, is self-employed) and an educated population (nearly 55 percent of adults have bachelor’s degrees).

With jobs at both its major university and state capital, Madison has a stable, upscale employment base. Forty-four percent of Madison’s workers hold management or professional jobs.

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