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A far cry from its Wild West beginnings, Castle Rock has set out to become a major magnet for businesses. The chamber of commerce holds regular networking events; the Castle Rock Economic Gardeners helps small businesses. That effort has paid off: Forty-four businesses opened in the first quarter of 2012. The downsides? There's not much diversity; Denver is a 40-minute drive. Small tradeoffs, say locals, to live in a place with 255 days of sunshine and an up-close view of the Rockies. -- Lauren Gensler
Notes:
*County data
Due to erroneous job, cost-of-living, and test score stats for a small number of places, this city's rank changed slightly from an earlier version.
Details.
Due to an error by our data provider, an earlier version listed incorrect stats for this city's number of colleges.
(I) Income tax notes:
These states use the personal exemption amounts provided in the federal Internal Revenue Code.
(II) Sales tax notes:
Most of Aurora is located within Arapahoe County and is subject to an 8 percent sales tax. However, part of the city lies in Adams County and is subject to a total rate of 8.5 percent.
Using statistics from data services company Onboard Informatics, 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 8,500 and 50,000.)
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