The 10 Best Cities for Millennials in 2019 (Plus the 10 Worst)

Finding the right place to settle down can be stressful. Does the area have ample employment opportunities? How much does housing cost? Are there fun things to do there? What’s the public transportation like? If you’re a millennial looking to move somewhere new, consider taking a look at a new list, created by the website Reviews.org, that ranks the top 25 best places in the U.S. for millennials to move to in 2019.

The Reviews.org team evaluated 325 metro areas using four equally weighted factors—unemployment rate, migration flows, housing costs, and property crime—and ranked them. (Any metro areas that were missing data in one of the categories were excluded from the analysis.)

“We aimed to find out which places are more than flashy cultural centers,” researcher Trevor Wheelwright writes. The results are “places that provide a solid foundation for living—nightlife and culture are just the cherries on top.”

The top 10 cities for Millennials to move to in 2019 are:

1. Lynchburg, Virginia
2. Oshkosh-Neenah, Wisconsin
3. Lafayette-West Lafayette, Indiana
4. Ames, Iowa
5. Sheboygan, Wisconsin
6. Jefferson City, Missouri
7. Harrisonburg, Virginia
8. Grand Rapids-Wyoming, Michigan
9. Fargo, North Dakota-Minnesota
10. Wausau, Wisconsin

The results were surprising. “California wasn’t as prominent as we thought it’d be,” Wheelwright writes. “A high cost of living plus competitive (and fruitless) job hunting can turn a lot of millennials off.” Also not high on the list were coastal cities, a finding Wheelwright ties to climate change.

As for the worst places to move? Cities in California constitute the bulk of the results, with cities in Alaska, New Jersey, Washington, and Florida also making appearances.

The 10 worst places for Millennials to move to in 2019 are:

1. Anchorage, Alaska
2. Fairbanks, Alaska
3. Modesto, California
4. Yuba City, California
5. Fresno, California
6. Ocean City, New Jersey
7. Salinas, California
8. Yakima, Washington
9. Atlantic City-Hammonton, New Jersey
10. Panama City, Florida

To see the full list of 25 best and 25 worst places for millennials to move to—and for more details on what makes the top 10 cities stand out—visit Reviews.org.