Seattle ranked 2024’s fifth best city to raise a family

By Emily Marek

May 30, 2024

Seattle ranks among the top places in the country to raise a family, according to a new WalletHub report.

The finance site ranked the 150 most populated cities in the country based on five key dimensions:

• Family fun, including metrics like playgrounds, ice rinks, skate parks, bike rentals and mini golf locations per capita, as well as walkability, bikeability, weather and the share of young families with children.
• Health and safety, including categories like air quality, water quality, public hospitals, driving fatalities, violent crime rates and family homelessness.
• Education and childcare, including metrics like school system quality, childcare costs, graduation rates, parental leave policies and summer learning opportunities.
• Affordability, including cost of living and housing affordability.
• Socioeconomics, including poverty rates, unemployment rates, underemployment rates, debt per median earnings and the wealth gap.

Seattle ranked No. 5 in the country, behind Fremont, California; Overland Park, Kansas; Irvine, California; and Plano, Texas. The Emerald City earned especially high scores for education and childcare and affordability. Despite the city’s expensive housing costs, Seattle ranked seventh in the country for median family salary and 11th for the lowest percentage of families living in poverty. See More

More great articles to read below:

• Buyers and sellers are ‘adjusting,’ according to latest NWMLS report

• This Popular U.S. City Was Just Named the Best for Outdoor Activities — and It Has 6,480 Acres of Parkland

• More Than 90% of Metro Areas Recorded Home Price Increases in First Quarter of 2024