FINALIST
Mesa, AZ
Best big cities rank: 3
Population: 442,800
Compare Mesa to Top 10 Best Places
Financial
  City stats Best places average
Median family income
(per year)
$54,850 $76,893
Family purchasing power
(annual, cost-of-living adjusted)
$51,262 $68,109
Sales tax 7.80% 6.55%
State income tax rate
(highest bracket)
5.04%* 6.46%
State income tax rate
(lowest bracket)
2.87%* 2.74%
Auto insurance premiums
(Average for the state)
$2,588 $2,207
Job growth %
(2000-2005)
13.32% 10.97%
Housing
  City stats Best places average
Median home price $199,000 $259,566
Home price gain
(2004-2005)
28.90% 9.26%
Education
  City stats Best places average
Colleges, universities and
professional schools
10 8
Junior colleges and
technical institutes
3 0
Test scores reading
(% +/- state average)
11.2% 13.3%
Test scores math
(% +/- state average)
17.9% 16.9%
% students attending
public/private schools
98.4/1.60 88.4/11.59
Quality of life
  City stats Best places average
Air quality index
(% of days AQI ranked as good)
22.2% 71.9%
Personal crime risk
(100 is nat'l average; lower is better)
85 45
Property crime risk
(100 is nat'l average; lower is better)
152 74
Personal crime incidents
(per 100,000)
562 228
Property crime incidents
(per 100,000)
5,250 3,105
Median commute time
(in minutes)
22.5 20.8
% population with commute
45 mins. or longer
14.5% 13.4%
Leisure and culture
  City stats Best places average
Movie theaters
(within 15 miles)
25 22
Restaurants
(within 15 miles)
3,089 2,268
Bars
(within 15 miles)
109 127
Public golf courses
(within 30 miles)
108 74
Libraries
(within 15 miles)
30 43
Museums (accredited by AAM
within 30 miles)
5 7
Ski resorts (within 100 miles) 1 10
Weather
  City stats Best places average
Annual precipitation
(inches)
9.23 36.00
Clear days 211 107
High temp in July ° F 105.7° 87.7°
Low temp in Jan ° F 41.5° 23.5°
Health*
  City stats Best places average
Has health plan
(% of residents)
84.9% 88.2%
Body mass index
(avg. for residents)
26 27
Cancer mortality
(per 100,000, age-adjusted)
182.6 191.3
Cardiac mortality
(per 100,000)
187.3 202.0
Meet the neighbors
  City stats Best places average
Median age 31.7 34.5
Completed at least some college
(% of residents)
57.6% 63.9%
Married 53.1% 54.3%
Divorced 10.7% 9.3%
Amount spent on vacations
(domestic and foreign, household avg. per year)
$7,272 $7,549
*County data
Income tax notes:
For joint returns, the taxes are twice the tax imposed on half the income.
Data: OnBoard, FORTUNE. Details
Arizona companies
FORTUNE 500
Company F500 rank
Avnet 212
Phelps Dodge 260
Allied Waste Industries 376
See the rest
Biggest employers
Company Employees
Arizona Board Of Regents 17,000
Simplified Business Solutions 3,601
Tucson Medical Center 2,926
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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.
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  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
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Priciest homes
  Median price
Newport Beach, CA $1,362,500
Greenwich, CT $1,129,000
Santa Barbara, CA $979,500
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Most educated
  % residents with
graduate degrees
Arlington, VA 35.7%
Davis, CA 34.6%
Brookline, MA 32.5%
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Most singles
  % single residents
Bloomington, IN 58.2%
New Brunswick, NJ 54.6%
College Station, TX 54.3%
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Youngest
  Median age
Jacksonville, NC 22.90
Provo, UT 23.28
New Brunswick, NJ 24.16
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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.

Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.