Loading
Tallahassee recently received a national whipping.
Not the Florida State Seminoles, but the city itself. The Sunshine State capital ranked 49th on a 2016 list of the best state capitals to live in, compiled by data firm SmartAsset. There were actually two cities that fared worse than Tallahassee, Jackson, Miss., and Hartford, Conn., because the list had 51 entries including Washington, D.C.
SmartAsset analyzed five factors from each city to compile the list, including:
Unemployment rate;
Violent crime rate per 100,000 residents;
Property crime rate per 100,000 residents;
Dining and entertainment establishments per 10,000 residents, including bars, restaurants, theaters and bowling alleys; and
A calculation of the average amount of disposable income residents have in each city by subtracting median annual housing costs from the median household income.
The average of the rankings across all the metrics is a city's final score/index.
The top three are geographically diverse: Montpelier, Vt., with an index of 95.35, is first; Pierre, S.D., at 89.35, is second; and Honolulu, at 86.5 is third. Concord, N.H., and Bismarck, N.D., round out the top five. Montpelier claimed the top spot in 2015, too. SmartAsset, in a statement, notes that in both years the Vermont capital had the highest concentration of dining and entertainment business per 10,000 people and one of the lowest crime rates.
The home of the Florida Legislature, meanwhile, scored poorly in nearly every category. The unemployment rate, 5%, at least rose to mediocre in comparison to some other cities. It
was better, for example, than three other Southeast capitals: Columbia, S.C., Montgomery, Ala., and Baton Rouge, La. But dining and entertainment is 11.18 per 10,000 people and the violent crime rate is at 937 incidents per 100,000 people.
The report notes another trend: The south isn't a good place for high quality-of-life state capitals, with four of the bottom five. The only city that prevents the South from clearing out the bottom four completely is Hartford, with a 17.45 ranking. “Compared to the top ranking state capitals,” SmartAsset says, “the average resident living in these cities has less disposable income and faces higher unemployment rates.”
Your free article limit has been reached this month.
Subscribe now for unlimited digital access to our award-winning business news.
Join thousands of executives who rely on us for insights spanning Tampa Bay to Naples.
