Perrysburg, Sylvania make list of top places in Ohio to raise family
Perrysburg was listed at number two, Sylvania at 21, and Maumee at 24.
By Kate Snyder / The Blade
Thu, 23 Jan 2020 13:56:43 GMT
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Perrysburg, Sylvania, and Maumee cracked the top 25 in a WalletHub ranking of the best cities in Ohio to raise a family.
Perrysburg was listed at No. 2, Sylvania at 21, and Maumee at 24.
Researchers measured several criteria in 186 cities across the state in four categories: family life and fun, education, health, and safety, affordability, and socio-economics. Bowling Green was ranked 45, and Oregon and Toledo were also on the list, coming in at 111 and 159, respectively.
Each of the four categories included specific metrics that were assigned point values.
Under family life and fun, the metrics studied were playgrounds per 100,000 residents, number of attractions, share of families with children younger than 18, WalletHub’s weather ranking, and average commute time. For education, health, and safety, researchers looked at quality of school systems, high school graduation rate, air quality, pediatricians per 100,000 residents, share of uninsured children, violent crime rate per 1,000 residents, and property crime rate per 1,000 residents.
In affordability, researchers looked at general affordability and housing affordability. And for socio-economics, researchers included separation and divorce rate, share of two-parent families, share of families in poverty, share of households receiving food stamps, unemployment rate, wealth gap, and foreclosure rate.
The value given for each metric was totaled for each category and then overall. The scores are out of 100.
Experts in each of the categories gave their opinions on what makes a city great for raising children, and all generally pointed out that different families are looking for different amenities, and what might be a priority for one family could not even be a concern for another.
“Small items like a having a school district with a well-established support system or city resource center for the deaf may be the unique factor that tips the decision for a family with a child who cannot hear,” Maria Sargent, professor of education at Ashland University, told WalletHub. “Maybe a family is looking for an unusual sports opportunity, arts program, or needs sidewalks in the neighborhood because they are a family of runners.”
The list was published Thursday. According to WalletHub, the researchers only studied the cities proper, not the metropolitan areas, and some cities were excluded because of limited data access.
Last year, Sylvania and Perrysburg were also ranked on Safewise’s list of Ohio’s safest cities, at 16 and 17 respectively. Safewise researchers relied on FBI crime data and ranked the violent crime and property crime rates — some cities had not submitted data to the FBI and were therefore not included.