Money's list of America's best small towns


Big cities
City Population
New York, NY 8,274,500
Los Angeles, CA 3,834,300
Chicago, IL 2,836,700
Houston, TX 2,208,200
Phoenix, AZ 1,552,300
Philadelphia, PA 1,449,600
San Antonio, TX 1,329,000
San Diego, CA 1,266,700
Dallas, TX 1,240,500
San Jose, CA 939,900
Detroit, MI 917,000
Jacksonville, FL 805,600
Indianapolis, IN 795,500
San Francisco, CA 765,000
Columbus, OH 747,800
Austin, TX 743,100
Fort Worth, TX 681,800
Memphis, TN 674,000
Charlotte, NC 671,600
Baltimore, MD 637,500
El Paso, TX 606,900
Milwaukee, WI 602,200
Boston, MA 599,400
Seattle, WA 594,200
Nashville-Davidson, TN 590,800
Denver, CO 588,300
Washington, DC 588,300
Las Vegas, NV 558,900
Portland, OR 550,400
Oklahoma City, OK 547,300
Tucson, AZ 525,500
Atlanta, GA 519,100
Albuquerque, NM 518,300
Fresno, CA 470,500
Long Beach, CA 466,500
Sacramento, CA 460,200
Mesa, AZ 452,900
Kansas City, MO 450,400
Cleveland, OH 438,000
Virginia Beach, VA 434,700
Omaha, NE 424,500
Miami, FL 409,700
Oakland, CA 401,500
Tulsa, OK 384,000
Minneapolis, MN 377,400
Colorado Springs, CO 376,400
Raleigh, NC 375,800
Honolulu, HI 375,600
Arlington, TX 371,000
Wichita, KS 361,400
St. Louis, MO 350,800
Santa Ana, CA 339,600
Tampa, FL 336,800
Anaheim, CA 333,200
Cincinnati, OH 332,500
Bakersfield, CA 315,800
Aurora, CO 311,800
Pittsburgh, PA 311,200
From the August 2009 issue
CNNMoney's Best Places database of 1,800-plus U.S. cities includes towns with populations 8,500 to 50,000 with satisfactory education and crime scores, where income is below 200% of the state median, and that are no more than 95% white – as well as cities with populations 90,000 and up.
Best Places Winners
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Money picked the top 100. Now it’s your turn: Which town will be our fan favorite? Become a fan of your town and it might just make it to No. 1. Results updated monthly.
Town Become a fan # of fans
1. Louisville, CO Become a fan on facebook Add me! 4,256
2. Chanhassen, MN Become a fan on facebook Add me! 2,410
3. Papillion, NE Become a fan on facebook Add me! 1,581
4. Middleton, WI Become a fan on facebook Add me! 1,481
5. Milton, MA Become a fan on facebook Add me! 1,425
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Using statistics from data provider Onboard Informatics, we crunched the numbers in order to zero in on America's best small towns for families. (Last year, we looked at small cities, with populations between 50,000 and 300,000.) More

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