Madison came in at No. 8 in Livability.com’s 2017 ranking of the top 100 small to mid-sized places to live in the U.S. In 2015, Madison took the No. 1 spot.
For the second year in a row, Rochester, Minn. topped the list.
Rankings are based on a set of criteria including economics, housing, amenities, transportation/infrastructure, demographics, social/civic capital, education, and health care.
Last year, Madison came in at No. 3. The city has scored well in Livability’s fourth-annual ranking of small to mid-sized cities with populations of between 20,000 and 350,000. In 2014, the list’s inaugural year, Madison ranked No. 5.
In front of Madison, which scored a 668 on the Livability.com scale, was (7) Palo Alto, Calif.; (6) Bellevue, Wash.; (5) Charlottesville, Va.; (4) Olympia, Wash.; (3) Ann Arbor, Mich.; (2) Iowa City, Ia.; and Rochester, which had an overall score of 695.
