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WINNER
Columbia/Ellicott City, MD
Top 100 rank: 4
Population: 62,331
Compare Ellicott City to Top 10 Best Places
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Financial
  City stats Best places average
Median family income
(per year)		 $104,680 $76,893
Family purchasing power
(annual, cost-of-living adjusted)		 $66,633 $68,109
Sales tax 5.00% 6.55%
State income tax rate
(highest bracket)		 4.75% 6.46%
State income tax rate
(lowest bracket)		 2.00% 2.74%
Auto insurance premiums
(Average for the state)		 $2,813 $2,207
Job growth %
(2000-2005)		 13.42% 10.97%
Housing
  City stats Best places average
Median home price $470,000 $259,566
Home price gain
(2004-2005)		 20.80% 9.26%
Education
  City stats Best places average
Colleges, universities and
professional schools		 16 8
Junior colleges and
technical institutes		 0 0
Test scores reading
(% +/- state average)		 32.1% 13.3%
Test scores math
(% +/- state average)		 53.4% 16.9%
% students attending
public/private schools		 88.5/11.50 88.4/11.59
Quality of life
  City stats Best places average
Air quality index
(% of days AQI ranked as good)		 n/a 71.9%
Personal crime risk
(100 is nat'l average; lower is better)		 45 45
Property crime risk
(100 is nat'l average; lower is better)		 85 74
Personal crime incidents
(per 100,000)		 n/a 228
Property crime incidents
(per 100,000)		 n/a 3,105
Median commute time
(in minutes)		 25.1 20.8
% population with commute
45 mins. or longer		 18.0% 13.4%
Leisure and culture
  City stats Best places average
Movie theaters
(within 15 miles)		 26 22
Restaurants
(within 15 miles)		 3,256 2,268
Bars
(within 15 miles)		 319 127
Public golf courses
(within 30 miles)		 75 74
Libraries
(within 15 miles)		 63 43
Museums (accredited by AAM
within 30 miles)		 26 7
Ski resorts (within 100 miles) 7 10
Weather
  City stats Best places average
Annual precipitation
(inches)		 45.63 36.00
Clear days 105 107
High temp in July ° F 87.9° 87.7°
Low temp in Jan ° F 22.7° 23.5°
Health*
  City stats Best places average
Has health plan
(% of residents)		 92.7% 88.2%
Body mass index
(avg. for residents)		 26 27
Cancer mortality
(per 100,000, age-adjusted)		 166.1 191.3
Cardiac mortality
(per 100,000)		 124.6 202.0
Meet the neighbors
  City stats Best places average
Median age 38.2 34.5
Completed at least some college
(% of residents)		 62.1% 63.9%
Married 62.4% 54.3%
Divorced 6.4% 9.3%
Amount spent on vacations
(domestic and foreign, household avg. per year)		 $8,602 $7,549
Data: OnBoard, FORTUNE. Details
Click map to enlarge
Show: Top companies | Colleges | Hospitals | Museums | Wineries | Gardens | Ski resorts | Zoos/aquariums (Map sources)
Maryland companies
FORTUNE: Best to work for
Company Best Companies
2006 Rank
Marriott International 99
See the rest
FORTUNE 500
Company F500 rank
Lockheed Martin 52
Constellation Energy 125
Marriott International 203
See the rest
Biggest employers
Company Employees
National Institutes Of Health 13,000
Fidelity & Guaranty Insurance Underwriters Inc 3,000
Abacus Corporation 2,950
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On Board LLC
Information powered by OnBoard LLC
Some data may be provided courtesy of its partners.

Additional data and consulting services provided by Bert Sperling's bestplaces.net.
Top earning cities
  Median household income
Greenwich, CT $112,493
Cupertino, CA $110,518
San Ramon, CA $109,500
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Hottest cities
  Avg. high temp
in July (°F)
Avondale, AZ 107.6°F
Glendale, AZ 107.6°F
Peoria, AZ 107.6°F
See the rest
Priciest homes
  Median price
Newport Beach, CA $1,362,500
Greenwich, CT $1,129,000
Santa Barbara, CA $979,500
See the rest
Most educated
  % residents with
graduate degrees
Arlington, VA 35.7%
Davis, CA 34.6%
Brookline, MA 32.5%
See the rest
Most singles
  % single residents
Bloomington, IN 58.2%
New Brunswick, NJ 54.6%
College Station, TX 54.3%
See the rest
Youngest
  Median age
Jacksonville, NC 22.90
Provo, UT 23.28
New Brunswick, NJ 24.16
See the rest
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