Reader's Digest asked parents to rate 13 features of a good place to raise a family. These factors were weighted, based on the importance that parents gave them. Then they were stacked up against statistical and demographic portraits of 301 metropolitan areas, large and small, throughout the country. The metropolitan areas we compared are the same standard geographical divisions used for national statistical surveys. These metro areas include city and suburban neighborhoods and sometimes even neighboring cities and towns.
None is without problems.
But places that achieved high overall scores in our survey are places that can provide what parents want the most for their families. The top cities may surprise you for their mix of size, location and disparate ambiance. Winners were scattered across the country from coast to coast. But two major metropolitan areas, with million-plus populations, also made the top ten. After analyzing the survey data, The Digest sent an editorial team out to the top ten metro areas to hear from local parents themselves.