Rochester drops to No. 14 in annual Livability rankings
Oct. 22—Med City's ranking sank to 14 in 2021's list of "livable" cities from its previous spot at No. 5 last year.
Livability.com, a website that ranks mid-sized US cities and creates promotional material for chambers of commerce, demoted Rochester by nine places on its annual Top 100 Best Places to Live In America. The list is sponsored by Motovoto By Oto, a national real estate listings site.
Rochester's profile on the list describes it as "a small but mighty city with a thriving downtown scene, tons of professional networking opportunities and lots of family-friendly activities to keep little ones busy." Plus the fact that Rochester residents "get to enjoy all four seasons" was lauded.
While Rochester's overall "livability" score only dropped by one point from 727 in 2020 to 726, many other cities moved up on a new scoring system that now includes a "Remote Ready" ranking based on how friendly a community is to remote workers.
More than 1,000 adults from across the country were asked if they could work from anywhere, which factors would be most heavily considered when choosing to relocate. Livability's materials state that since March 2020, more than 42 percent of the US population has either moved or considered moving.
Charlottesville, Va., took over Rochester's former spot at No. 5. It tallied a "livability" score of 760. Charlottesville's Remote Ready score was 70, while Rochester's was 49.
"This year's list is a testament to loving where you live, in a time where more of us than ever can live anywhere we want," said Livability.com managing editor Cara Sanders in the announcement of this year's results. "These past two years have shown us how important it is that the places we live meet our needs and offer up affordability, opportunity and plenty of amenities. If we can work from anywhere, then these 100 cities are places you would want to live and make remote workers' needs a top priority."
