Best Places to Raise a Family

Forbes posted an article back in October about the best small towns to raise a family. Evidently, according to Forbes, the best small towns to raise a family are in the Midwest/Great Lakes regions, with few exceptions. I'm sure these towns are great places, but it was far too geographically exclusive to not ping my sense of curiosity and regional indignation. The result: a short survey of the data used in ranking those cities compared to my lineup of all-star unknowns. Pulling all the data from Sperlings best places (for its ease of use and comprehensive data sets), I reviewed the following criteria, based on the data used in Forbes ranking:  commute time, high school graduation rate, median household income, home ownership rate and cost of living index. Compared to their ranked places and in a revised top 15, the Places Northwest sample captured #2, 4, 6, 7, and 8th place. Not the brilliant tromping of the Forbes list I'd hoped for, but a respectable comparison. Better than the top 15 however, was that one of the their ranked towns was pushed down to #37 on the list. Giving credit to their list, Helena was ranked 9th on their list and similarly on mine.

That done, I was unsatisfied with the filtering criteria for a best place to raise a family - what about unemployment, pupil/teacher ratios, general college attainment, median home values, crime rates, climate and environmental quality? Examining this data led me to rank the Places Northwest sample along this criteria.

Palouse, WA	(1)	Dillon, MT	(2)	Pullman, WA	(3)
Helena, MT	(4)	Moscow, ID	(5)	Pocatello, ID	(6)
Bozeman, MT	(7)	Richland, WA	(8)	Idaho Falls, ID	(9)
Grangeville, ID	(10)	La Grande, OR	(11)	Lewiston, ID	(12)
Tekoa, WA	(13)	Missoula, MT	(14)	Colville, WA	(15)

As my wife said, the data is not going to convince me where to raise my kids; there are the endless intangibles. However, it does give some quantifiable measure of conducive metrics and reinforces my view that these places are places worth examining.