A number of factors go into choosing a new city to call home — affordability, quality of life, and availability of jobs are some standard things that young people take into account when considering a move.
Still, there are some elements of city living that many surveys don't address. How much would a pint of beer in San Francisco cost? Are there a lot of coffee shops in Philadelphia? Could I go see a concert in Dallas?
News organization Vocativ just released their first Livability Index, which ranks the 35 best U.S. cities for people under 35. They based their ranking on traditional data, like unemployment rates and average rent, but also included "softer" data points that would be relevant to people in their 20s and 30s. Most of the data came from the "deep web," publicly available information that is not necessarily available in Google search.
Cities were chosen based on 20 factors including youngest population, lowest average rent, cheapest gas and electricity prices, food prices and public transportation. Vocativ also factored in laundromats, coffee shops, cheap takeout restaurants, nail salons, and music venues per capita, as well as the prices of beer, cigarettes, and marijuana. See the complete methodology here.
#35 Colorado Springs, CO
This young mountain town has a growing arts community, and creature comforts like beer and cigarettes are cheap. It's also an ideal place to date, with 50,000 single Facebook users in a city of less than 500,000.
Source: Vocativ Livability Index
#34 Milwaukee, WI
With a median age of just 30.5, Milwaukee is the second-youngest city on the index. Even better, a pint in the so-called beer capital of the world will only cost you $5, one of the cheapest brews in the country.
Source: Vocativ Livability Index
#33 Philadelphia, PA
The City of Brotherly Love has one of the best and most frequently used public transportation systems in the country, with 22% of its residents using it weekly. Philly also has a high percentage of green commuters, with the fourth-highest share of residents traveling by bicycle or on foot.
Source: Vocativ Livability Index
See the rest of the story at Business Insider