Money's list of America's best small cities


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85. Chesapeake, VA
Chesapeake
The Great Bridge of Chesapeake
WINNER
Top 100 rank: 85
Population: 220,500
Compare Chesapeake to Top 10 Best Places
You may remember Chesapeake from history class as a battleground during the Revolutionary War. It's considerably safer now. Indeed, stats show it's one of the lowest-crime cities around.

It also has a dynamic global business community, including several telecommunications companies. And Chesapeake is a cultural hub with convenient access to opera and stage companies, symphonies and museums.

Beach lovers flock here: The city is within close proximity of the Atlantic Ocean and Virginia Beach.

Median family income
(per year)
$73,190 $93,313
Family purchasing power
(annual, cost-of-living adjusted)
$68,659 $84,802
Sales tax 5.00% 6.60%
State income tax rate
(highest bracket)
5.75% 5.22%
State income tax rate
(lowest bracket)
2.00% 2.42%
Auto insurance premiums
(Average price quotes, for the state)
$1,576 $1,854
Job growth %
(2000-2007)
20.02% 18.60%
Median home price $255,000 $293,712
Average property taxes
(2007)
$2,884 $4,072
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Colleges, universities and
professional schools (within 30 miles)
11 40
Junior colleges and
technical institutes (within 30 miles)
11 20
Test scores reading
(% above/below state average)
2.5% 17.3%
Test scores math
(% above/below average)
10.7% 16.6%
% students attending public/private
schools (located within town limits)
93.1/6.7 89.5/10.5
Air quality index*
(% of days AQI ranked as good)
N.A. 76.0%
Personal crime incidents (per 1,000) 4 2
Property crime incidents (per 1,000) 31 25
Median commute time
(in minutes)
22.3 23.0
% population with commute
45 mins. or longer
9.7% 15.8%
% population walk or bike to work 2.2% 3.0%
Movie theaters
(within 15 miles)
31 51
Restaurants
(within 15 miles)
2,759 4,141
Bars
(within 15 miles)
163 338
Public golf courses
(within 30 miles)
96 242
Libraries
(within 15 miles)
71 90
Museums (accredited by AAM;
within 30 miles)
6 11
Ski resorts (within 100 miles) N.A. 13
Arts funding (Dollars per person of state funds spent on arts) 0.9 1.5
Annual rainfall
(inches)
45.17 36.31
% clear days in the area 29 30
High temp in July ° F 87.0° 87.8°
Low temp in Jan ° F 32.5° 22.9°
Has health plan
(% of residents)
88.3% 88.2%
Body mass index (avg. for residents) 27 27
Diabetes rates
(% of residents diagnosed)
11.4% 9.6%
Hypertension rates
(% of residents diagnosed)
31.8% 27.3%
Median age 36.6 36.0
Completed at least some college
(% of residents)
63.6% 73.6%
Married 56.7% 57.5%
Divorced 8.6% 8.3%
Racial diversity index
(100 is national average; higher numbers indicate greater diversity)
164.0 104.0
Amount spent on vacations
(domestic and foreign, household avg. per year)
$7,312 $8,012
From the August 2008 issue
Notes:
* County data
** State data
See Chesapeake in...
...What Readers Say
They speak out on Chesapeake and other places ...
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On Board LLC
Information powered by Onboard Informatics
Some data may be provided courtesy of its partners.
Sperling's Best Places
Additional data and consulting services provided by Bert Sperling's bestplaces.net.
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iReport
Do you live in a great place? Does your city have great cafes and culture? Lovely affordable homes? Low crime and a thriving downtown? A thriving local economy? Amazing neighbors? Show us why your town is remarkable: Send your photos and videos, and they could be profiled in an upcoming story.
 
Top 3

City Median income
New Canaan, CT $231,138
Darien, CT $218,130
Lake Forest, IL $212,122
City % single
Hoboken, NJ 57.7%
Cambridge, MA 52.4%
Somerville, MA 51.4%
City Median home price
Nicholasville, KY $70,000
Watauga, TX $117,040
Redan, GA $115,000
Using statistics from data provider Onboard Informatics and consultant Bert Sperling of BestPlaces.net, we crunched the numbers in order to zero in on America's best small cities for families. (Last year, we looked at small towns, with populations between 7,500 and 50,000.) More

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