Best United States cities to live in: Top 50 for 2012

Lists may come and lists may go, but one that is waited for every year is the list of “United States Best Cities” ranked by Businessweek and Bloomberg. This year, the top honors go to San Francisco, California with another west coast city coming in second place – Seattle, Washington.

The Most Religious Metropolitan Areas in the United States/Least Religious

The 25 Most Dangerous Cities in the U.S. according to the FBI

According to the blurb attached to the list, the criteria for making the distinguished list are: the leisure attributes (including the number of restaurants, bars, libraries, museums, professional sports teams, and park acres by population of a city); the educational attributes including public school performance, the number of colleges, and graduate degree holders), the economic factors (2011 income as well as June/July 2012 unemployment data), crime, and air quality.

Additionally, major professional league and minor league teams, as well as United States-based teams belonging to international leagues in that city were included. The greatest weighting was placed on leisure amenities, followed by educational metrics and economic metrics, and then crime and air quality.

Based on the criteria, the numbered list follows:

The 50 Best Cities in the United States

1. San Francisco, California
2. Seattle, Washington
3. Washington, D.C.
4. Boston, Massachusetts
5. Portland, Oregon
6. Denver, Colorado
7. New York City, New York
8. Austin, Texas
9. San Diego, California
10. St. Paul, Minnesota
11. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
12. Minneapolis, Minnesota
13. Nashville, Tennessee
14. New Orleans, Louisiana
15. Kansas City, Missouri
16. Atlanta, Georgia
17. Madison, Wisconsin
18. Raleigh, North Carolina
19. Honolulu, Hawaii
20. Columbus, Ohio
21. Cincinnati, Ohio
22. Houston, Texas
23. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
24. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
25. Lexington, Kentucky
26. Milwaukee, Wisconsin
27. Arlington, Virginia
28. Chicago, Illinois
29. Baltimore, Maryland
30. San Antonio, Texas
31. Oakland, California
32. Rochester, New York
33. San Jose, California
34. Lincoln, Nebraska
35. Tampa, Florida
36. Colorado Springs, Colorado
37. Indianapolis, Indiana
38. Tulsa, Oklahoma
39. Charlotte, North Carolina
40. Virginia Beach, Virginia
41. Dallas, Texas
42. Reno, Nevada
43. Scottsdale, Arizona
44. Phoenix, Arizona
45. Chesapeake, Virginia
46. Cleveland, Ohio
47. St. Louis, Missouri
48. Omaha, Nebraska
49. Anchorage, Alaska
50. Los Angeles, California

The west coast has the supreme distinction of having four of its best-known cities listed in the top ten.

The primary source of this article is Businessweek.com.