This Colorado city ranked as one of the top cities in America

Samantha Jarpe
·2 min read
6

DENVER (KDVR) — One of Colorado’s most recognizable cities made its way on a list of top cities in America with 100,000 or more people.

The list, created by Niche, uses data from the U.S. Census Bureau and other sources to rank places across the U.S. based on various factors.

Boulder has an estimated population of 108,250, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and was included in Niche’s “city” category.

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The home to the University of Colorado Boulder came in as the No. 20 best city nationwide but did not make the top 20 places overall list.

The other categories included neighborhoods in cities, suburbs and towns with less than 100,000 people.

Boulder is one of the top cities

Niche gave each place grades in several different categories including public schools, crime and safety, housing and nightlife. Those were combined to create an overall grade.

Boulder was given an A+ overall but had some lower grades in select categories.

This included a C+ in crime and safety and a C- in cost of living, meaning the cost to live there is not ideal.

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The following is Niche’s ranking of the top 10 best cities:

  1. Naperville, Illinois – Population of 149K

  2. The Woodlands, Texas – Population of 118K

  3. Cambridge, Massachusetts – Population of 117K

  4. Arlington, Virginia – Population of 235K

  5. Plano, Texas – Population of 284K

The top 20 list of places overall was dominated by suburbs and towns with populations of less than 100K. Naperville, the highest-ranked place in the city category, came in at No. 24 on the main list of places.

Boulder one of the healthiest places

One of the stand-out qualities of Boulder, according to Niche, is how healthy it is.

The grade in this category was calculated using statistics on things like physical activity, obesity, access to healthcare and smoking.

Boulder came in as the No. 9 healthiest place in America. This was overall, and not just places in the city category.

Many of the top 10 were larger cities, however, and many were on the west coast:

  1. Berkeley, California

  2. Irvine, California

  3. San Francisco

  4. Torrance, California

  5. Cambridge, Massachusetts

  6. Seattle, Washington

  7. Bellevue, Washington

  8. Pasadena, California

  9. Boulder

  10. Santa Clara, California

Boulder was only one of two places on the list — the other being Cambridge, Mass. — that was not located in either California or Washington.

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