Local News

Report: Of all state capitals, Boston has the highest quality of life

But it's the second least affordable city on the list.

The Back Bay skyline of Boston. Maddie Meyer / Getty Pictures

January 18, 2021

2 minutes to read

Boston is apparently a luxury product when it comes to American cities with statehouses.

It’s the state capital with the highest quality of life, but it’s also the second least affordable, according to a new report.

An analysis of America’s 50 state capitals was published Monday by WalletHub, a personal finance site. Using 44 metrics, the highly-livable but very expensive Boston landed as the 37th best capital to live in, right between Topeka, Kansas and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

The top three spots overall went to Austin, Texas; Madison, Wisconsin; and Raleigh, North Carolina.

The list is slightly different this year, with coronavirus rates and availability of quality takeout factoring into the rankings.

Of course, limiting the list to only state capitals skews the results, but it still provides insights into how Boston fits among other major metros like Austin, Denver, and Atlanta, especially with the help of a detailed dataset shared with Boston.com.

Racking up major points for the quality of life in Boston is its walkability (#1), access to public transportation (#1), availability of quality takeout and delivery (#1), sports fan-friendliness (#1), and share of millennial newcomers (#2 behind Denver).

Despite the reputation of Boston drivers, the city has the fewest driving fatalities per capita — but the longest average commute time.

Boston is also among the safer U.S. capitals. It’s in the middle of the pack for violent crime, but low for property crime with a high perception of safety.

But all that livability comes with a stark premium. Boston is the second-least affordable state capital, only behind notoriously expensive Honolulu. It has the highest cost of housing and the second-highest cost of living.

Still, the city scores well in economic well-being —13th — buoyed by high population and income growth and low rates of foreclosures and bankruptcies.

Some metrics that bring the city down in economic well-being — ones that are arguably more important to the average resident — include a somewhat high unemployment rate and very high income inequality, the second-worst among all state capitals. This is the city where Black residents had a median net worth of $8 in 2015, after all.

Boston is right in the middle for quality of education and health — 24th — but the underlying metrics veer to the extremes. The graduation rate and quality of public schools hover near the bottom of the list, while the share of adults with a college degree and the quality and number of universities are at the top. That’s not counting Harvard, MIT, and all the other colleges just beyond Boston’s borders.

Health in Boston is similarly polarized. It’s the second-highest for health insurance coverage, fourth-highest for hospital beds per capita, and fourth-lowest for obesity, but current spikes in COVID-19 cases and deaths bring the score down. Boston also scores rather low for the quality of its public hospital system, but remember that the city’s flagship medical centers like Mass General and Brigham and Women’s are mostly private teaching hospitals affiliated with schools like Harvard or Tufts.