Fort Wayne and Indianapolis in top 100 places to raise a family

I was just reading MSN when I saw an article entitled “The 100 Best Places to Raise a Family”.  According to a ranking conducted by Best Life Magazine, Fort Wayne and Indianapolis, Indiana are among the top 100 U.S. cities for raising families.  What exactly goes into making a city a great place to raise a family?  Well for starters, local schools.  Whereas the average school expenditure in the U.S. is $6,058, both Fort Wayne and Indianapolis spend more than this national mean.  Teacher to student ratios are the same at 18 students to every teacher and students in both cities do better than average on their test scores.

Other factors considered in this quality of life ranking include the number of museums and parks, Number of pediatricians, short commutes to work, affordable housing and low divorce rates.  The editors at Best Life used data from the U.S. Census Bureau, National Center for Educational Statistics, the FBI, American Association of Museums, the National Center for Health Statistics and the American Bar Association.

This should come as good news to residents of both these great cities.  Personally, I think that there are several cities in Hamilton County Indiana that could have qualified for this ranking.  When you consider other important factors such as cost of living, entertainment venues, dining, shopping, and open spaces, there are several local cities that come to mind.  Noblesville, Cicero, Carmel, Fishers and Morse Lake all offer a high quality of life, good schools, numerous entertainment and recreational opportunities and low cost of living, affordable homes and secure neighborhoods.