Small cities in Massachusetts that rank as some of the best in the United States
The personal finance site WalletHub ranked over 1,200 small towns in America based on things like schools, coffee shops and housing costs.
Brookline recently ranked as the best suburb in America, and now a few other Massachusetts cities can lay claim to being some of the best in the nation.
The personal finance site WalletHub just ranked over 1,200 small cities in America (with populations between 25,000 and 100,000) using 22 different metrics, ranging from school rankings to coffee shops to housing costs.
And Massachusetts faired pretty well.
Northampton ranked as the No. 8 best small city in the United States. Though the city’s affordability ranking was not great, its education and health ranking landed as No. 4 in the nation. The western Massachusetts city, home to Smith College, was ranked No. 55 of the 1,200 cities on the list for quality of life.
Milton and Lexington both made it into the top 30, ranking at No. 14 and No. 26, respectively. Both towns were rated very highly in the education and health ranking, with Lexington coming in at No. 1 in the nation and Milton falling right behind at No. 2.
Wellesley was the next Massachusetts town on the list at No. 105, mainly falling behind due to affordability, for which it ranked No. 1,100 in the nation.
Brookline ranked farther down the list at No. 349, with its affordability ranking almost dead last: No. 1,252 out of the 1,268 ranked towns.
But both Boston suburbs were among the top five towns with the highest percentage of residents with a bachelor degree or higher, with Wellesley at No. 2 and Brookline at No. 3.
Somerville was nationally ranked as having the fifth-highest percentage of “millennial newcomers.’’
You can see WalletHub’s full list and rankings here.
Here are the 50 safest towns in Massachusetts:
Correction: A previous version of this story referred to Northampton as a town. It is a city.
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com