5 Alabama cities make U.S. News annual list of 250 Best Places to Live

There’s a new No. 1 place to live in Alabama, according to the latest rankings from U.S. News.

Hoover has overtaken Huntsville in the latest statewide rankings + the city moved up to No. 25 on the company’s list of best places to live across the country.

In total, five Alabama towns made the top 250 including:

• No. 25 Hoover
• No. 85 Huntsville
• No. 130 Decatur
• No. 182 Daphne
• No. 190 Dothan

U.S. News 250 Best Places to Live

U.S. News uses an extensive scoring system to rank each city in the country. Different categories included:

• Air Quality Index
• Cost of Living
• Culture/Leisure Index
• Education
• Environmental Risk
• Healthcare
• House Affordability
• Infrastructure
• Job Market
• Net Migration

Those factors were used to create a score out of 10.0 for each city. The No. 1 city, Johns Creek, Georgia, received a 7.0.

Alabama’s top cities were not far off from that score.

Hoover received a 6.7 while Huntsville had a 6.3. Our state had nine total cities receive at least a 5.5.

Best places to retire

Huntsville is still considered the best place in Alabama for retirees, ranking 8th in the entire country.

Other Alabama cities on the list of 150 best places to retire include:

• No. 36 Montgomery
• No. 94 Mobile
• No. 139 Birmingham

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