PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Since Pittsburgh was declared the nation’s most livable city by Rand McNally in 1985, we’ve kind of paid close attention to these kinds of rankings.
U.S. News and World Report has released its new listing of the best places to live, and Pittsburgh has landed at #36 on the list of 150 cities.
“#36 overall which is really incredible,” said Erika Giovanetti.
There are a lot of categories included in the rankings where Pittsburgh is listed #1. If this was a beauty contest, Pittsburgh would be near the top with its Golden Triangle and the confluence of its three rivers, but U.S. News and World Report looks deeper, so brace yourself.
“Pittsburgh is ranked #23 for quality of life, which includes the #13 health ranking and the #12 for establishment ratio for the number of bars and restaurants per capita,” said Giovanetti.
That’s right, our foodie scene ranks up there on a per-person basis.
“Pittsburgh outranks a lot of much larger cities for that at #12,” Giovanetti said, mentioning Los Angeles and New York by comparison.
The report says that Pittsburgh is the 10th best place to retire.
Giovanetti, who is an Oakmont native, says that the healthcare ranking at #13 doesn’t surprise her.
“We have UPMC and the wonderful health care system that comes along with it,” said Giovanetti. “And that’s just that health index that we have. It is overall access to quality health care.”
When people are asked which cities they would see themselves living in the most, Pittsburgh did not fare well in that category.
But when disaster strikes, Pittsburgh is one place you want to live.
“Pittsburgh ranked number one in the country for FEMA risk,” Giovanetti said. “So, what FEMA risk determines is the, I guess, the risk of natural disaster and how resilient a city is to handling those disasters.”
For those keeping score, Cincinnati was listed #100, Baltimore was ranked #118, and Cleveland was ranked #141 out of the 150 cities.
U.S. News’ top 10 best cities to live in the U.S. are below. Click here for the full list.
- Naples, Florida
- Boise, Idaho
- Colorado Springs, Colorado
- Greenville, South Carolina
- Charlotte, North Carolina
- Raleigh, North Carolina
- Huntsville, Alabama
- Virginia Beach, Virginia
- Austin, Texas
- Boulder, Colorado