Quality of Life - Methodology    previous page

QUALITY-OF-LIFE RATINGS

American City Business Journals used 20 statistical indicators to rate the quality of life in all 3,141 counties and independent cities in America.

All statistics in ACBJ's study were collected by the April 2000 federal census and were released in late 2002 or 2003. They remain the most recent, most comprehensive statistics available at the county level. County boundaries used in this study were those that existed in April 2000.

Some counties and independent cities share a name. This report indicates the latter with the abbreviation (IC). St. Louis County, Missouri, for example, is listed as St. Louis, MO, while the independent city of St. Louis is listed as St. Louis (IC), MO.

The ratings formula compared each county's performance against the U.S. county-by-county averages in 20 categories, yielding an overall quality-of-life score. Counties with upper-income families, large homes and well-educated adults received high marks. But several qualities unrelated to affluence were also rewarded, including racial diversity, family stability and short commuting times. Overall scores ranged from a high of 18.99 points to a low of minus-16.04 points.

This report lists each county with its national quality-of-life rank, its total score and its national percentile. The latter is the percentage of U.S. counties and independent cities that the specified county surpassed in the rankings.

Listed below are the 20 categories that ACBJ used to produce the ratings. The letter in parentheses indicates whether the category's top score went to the county with the highest (H) or lowest (L) figure.

1. Stability -- Percentage of residents who have lived in their current homes for at least five years. (H)

2. Work in neighborhood -- Percentage of workers who walk to their jobs or work at home. (H)

3. Work within county -- Percentage of workers who work in the same county where they live. (H)

4. Short commutes -- Percentage of workers who live less than 15 minutes from their jobs, minus the percentage who commute 45 minutes or longer. The listed figure is the difference between these two groups, expressed in percentage points. (H)

5. Transit availability -- Percentage of workers who commute by public transit. (H)

6. Young adults -- Percentage of residents between the ages of 25 and 44. (H)

7. Racial diversity -- Percentage of residents who are minorities (blacks, Hispanics, Asians and Native Americans) minus the national average (30.9 percent), expressed as an absolute value. The listed figure is the local deviation from minority representation in the nation as a whole, expressed in percentage points. (It is not the percentage of local minorities.) The lower the deviation, the more closely a county mirrors the nation's diversity. (L)

8. Poverty -- Percentage of families living below the federally designated poverty level. (L)

9. Unemployment -- Percentage of civilian workforce that is unemployed. (L)

10. Top-level jobs -- Percentage of workers who have jobs in management or professional occupations. (H)

11. Income -- Median household income. (H)

12. Home value -- Median value of owner-occupied homes. (H)

13. House affordability -- Comparison of median home value and median household income, expressed as home value per $1,000 of income. (L)

14. Property taxes -- Comparison of median real estate taxes and median household income, expressed as real estate taxes per $1,000 of income. (L)

15. New housing units -- Percentage of existing homes built since 1980. (H)

16. Big houses -- Percentage of homes with nine or more rooms. (H)

17. Homeowner rate -- Percentage of homes owned by their occupants. (H)

18. High school grads -- Percentage of adults 25 or older who hold high school diplomas. (H)

19. College grads -- Percentage of adults 25 or older who hold bachelor's degrees. (H)

20. Graduate degrees -- Percentage of adults 25 or older who hold master's, doctoral and/or professional degrees. (H)