This suburb of Kansas City is among the best small cities in the US, report says
Last year, a suburb of Kansas City nabbed the title of the best small city in America. It fell in the 2020 rankings — but it still stands among the best, according to a study from WalletHub released Tuesday.
Leawood, Kansas, earned the No. 11 spot on the personal finance website’s list of best small cities in the U.S.
Sammamish, Washinton, garnered the top spot this year, followed by these cities to round out the top five: Lexington, Massachusetts; Carmel, Indiana; Needham, Massachusetts; and Sugar Land, Texas.
To determine its rankings, WalletHub compared more than 1,200 cities with populations between 25,000 and 100,000 on what it calls “43 key indicators of livability.” Each indicator fits into one of five categories: affordability, economic health, education and health, quality of life and safety.
Leawood is home to nearly 35,000 people, according to 2019 Census Bureau data, and saw its highest score in the affordability category. It ranked seventh, falling from the No. 2 spot last year.
Affordability takes into account factors such as median household income, cost of living, home ownership rate and housing costs.
Leawood ranked 57th for economic health, which looks at factors including population, job and income growth as well as unemployment and foreclosure rates. The city also tied for second for the lowest percentage of the population in poverty, the report said.
Leawood ranked 101st for safety and 135th for education and health, also landing the top spot for percentage of the population with a high school diploma or higher.
The city’s lowest rank was 834th for quality of life, which assesses factors such as average commute time, average hours worked weekly and the number of restaurants, bars, movie theaters, museums and other entertainment offerings per capita.
Other Kansas City-area cities were also included on the list.
Lenexa, Kansas, ranked 70th, scoring better than 94% of cities on the list. Shawnee, Kansas, scored in the 83rd percentile followed by Lee’s Summit, Missouri, in the 63rd percentile and Lawrence, Kansas, in the 60th percentile.
This story was originally published October 20, 2020 at 8:11 AM.