(MONEY Magazine) – You can see why Provo/Orem is No. 1: it gets high scores in so many categories -- economy, housing, transportation (mass transit and commuting time) and health. The other places excelled in the economy category too, and most do well in housing, led by booming Billings. Fayetteville and Bremerton are the safest overall, though Billings has an especially low violent-crime rate. Boise, a regional medical center, scores highest in health, and college towns Madison and Austin are tops in education. Many of these areas scored poorly in arts and leisure, though, because they lack big-city symphonies and pro teams. Each figure shows a place's score as a percent of the top city's score in that category; the circled numbers show the best score within the top 10 in each category.

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