The Migration to Smaller Cities Will Continue Post-Pandemic

As stores reopen, restaurants allow dine-in meals and public transit ridership creeps back up, many people are returning to the cities they fled during the coronavirus pandemic. But, a number of Americans have found that the big urban lifestyle is no longer something they crave and are joining the millions who live in small cities across the nation. This COVID-driven suburbanization is not new; studies have shown that city growth was slowing down even before the coronavirus pandemic began. There are a variety of reasons why people move — education, safety, affordability, space — and a new report tries to quantify those factors to identify the best small cities in America.

Determining which small city to move to can be a difficult task, however. The report from personal finance company WalletHub evaluated 1,322 of America’s small cities to identify the best and found Sammamish, Wash., has the top overall score. The report grouped cities by percentile due to the large sample size, with the 99th percentile representing the top 1 percent of small cities in America. This year, 19 cities made the 99th percentile.



Only cities with populations between 25,000 and 100,000 were considered for the study. Using data from several agencies, including the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, County Health Rankings, TripAdvisor and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the cities were compared across five key factors: affordability, economic health, education and health, quality of life and safety.

The report also measured how each city performed based on 43 different metrics, including median household income; cost of living; population growth; unemployment rate; foreclosure rate; high school graduation rate; COVID-19 vaccination rate; adult obesity rate; average commute time; number of restaurants, bars, clubs, coffee shops per capita; and crime rates. Each of the metrics were graded on a 100-point scale and that score was then used to create a weighted average to determine an overall score and percentile ranking for each city.

Of the 19 cities in the 99th — or highest — percentile, eight of them are in Massachusetts; of the 20 cities in the first — or lowest — percentile, 17 of them are in the South.  

Eight of the top 10 cities for quality of life are beach cities, with Myrtle Beach, S.C., ranking the best. However, five of those same cities are also among the least affordable cities in the report: Key West, Fla.; Santa Barbara, Calif.; Santa Monica, Calif.; Monterey, Calif.; and Miami Beach, Fla. Unsurprisingly, a large majority, 18 out of 30, of the least affordable cities are in California.

More than half of the top 20 safest cities are in either Virginia or Massachusetts, the remainder are in New York, New Jersey and Idaho. The 13 least safe cities are in Mississippi, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana and Arkansas.

Twenty of the top 30 cities for education and health were in Massachusetts, with three of the top 30 in Connecticut and the remainder in Maryland.

For economic health, 11 of the top 30 cities are in California’s Bay Area, many of which make up Silicon Valley: Mountain View, Dublin, San Carlos, Belmont, Los Altos, Foster City, Milpitas, Redwood City, Pleasanton, Burlingame and Cupertino.

In many ways, college towns can bring many benefits of the city without the urban density. According to Professor Robert J. S. Ross of Clark University, two of the largest drawbacks of living in a small city may be alleviated in college towns. Living in small cities may require traveling further to access things such as cultural opportunities, like museums and art exhibits, or high-end medical services, he says. But college towns can often be more endowed with facilities and events than big cities.

Overall, small cities often provide many great benefits to their residents. Jerry Anthony, an associate professor at the University of Iowa, identified five main benefits of small city living: “Usually lower-cost housing, a better sense of community and connectedness to events and activities in the community, more opportunities to make a tangible difference through civic engagement, a greater sense of fulfillment and life satisfaction [and…] much less time spent commuting or traveling within the city.”

Experts agree that the trend toward small cities was exacerbated by the pandemic and will continue even after large cities normalize. “This is an accelerant of prior trends,” Professor Ross explains. “The rise of work-at-home employment in the pandemic is a powerful outward force in the settlement pattern.”

99th Percentile Small Cities

City	Total Score	Affordability	Economic Health	Education & Health	Quality of Life	Safety
Sammamish, WA	72.55	178	3	57	1228	30
Carmel, IN	71.79	31	36	160	275	27
Brentwood, TN	71.57	28	44	115	390	98
Lexington, MA	71.54	388	37	1	192	7
Reading, MA	71.13	81	143	3	1091	9
Zionsville, IN	70.92	3	117	132	766	104
Portland, ME	70.88	1001	247	56	12	381
Milton, MA	70.66	197	477	24	533	12
Melrose, MA	70.65	501	88	8	648	22
Dublin, OH	70.44	6	60	611	204	132
Westfield, IN	70.18	39	175	184	838	37
Redmond, WA	70.12	486	5	64	121	375
Brookfield, WI	70.07	63	199	53	279	270
Arlington, MA	69.92	874	108	7	196	8
Princeton, NJ	69.87	604	31	275	78	61
Newton, MA	69.82	603	78	4	351	14
Needham, MA	69.82	141	54	15	597	26
Burlington, MA	69.82	280	33	9	515	86
Leawood, KS	69.78	9	114	85	796	195

1st Percentile Small Cities

City	Total Score	Affordability	Economic Health	Education & Health	Quality of Life	Safety
Sumter, SC	43.08	991	1199	1291	483	1294
Rocky Mount, NC	42.99	962	1276	1258	596	1289
Petersburg, VA	42.81	1207	1283	1321	426	1163
Goldsboro, NC	42.80	1073	1263	1250	265	1303
Camden, NJ	42.62	1288	1307	899	890	743
Danville, IL	42.54	783	1267	1229	499	1307
Gadsden, AL	42.12	771	893	1304	436	1314
Wasco, CA	41.81	663	1313	1247	1293	1287
Florence, SC	41.79	584	1017	1287	301	1318
LaGrange, GA	41.13	1176	1286	1313	990	1276
New Iberia, LA	40.35	791	1319	1310	427	1317
Fort Hood, TX	39.53	1264	1320	1114	671	1243
Alexandria, LA	39.16	804	1095	1318	353	1319
Albany, GA	38.24	1106	1238	1320	455	1306
West Memphis, AR	37.77	746	1297	1311	1137	1311
East Point, GA	37.45	1178	1303	1086	1190	1313
Greenville, MS	36.75	1072	1322	1322	700	1277
Monroe, LA	36.18	1099	1310	1317	285	1315
Bessemer, AL	36.18	1154	1196	1286	659	1321
Pine Bluff, AR	35.92	1013	1304	1315	850	1312