Rockville, North Bethesda Make Top 100 Places to Live List; Bethesda Does Not

Bethesda was left off Livability.com's list of the top 100 small to mid-size cities

September 15, 2014 4:07 p.m.

Lately it seems about once a month Bethesda makes some kind of superlative list or ranking.

Not so this week as Livability.com released its 2015 list of the top 100 small to mid-size cities to live in and while Rockville, Frederick, Silver Spring and North Bethesda made the list, Bethesda did not.

Livability partnered with the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto to create the list, which factored in data on more than 2,000 U.S. cities.

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The ranking focused on four principles—access to good schools, hospitals and infrastructure; affordability including data about income to make sure livability isn’t a luxury; choices in transportation, farmers markets, schools and parks; and lifestyle variables to gauge how residents use their city.

The website used data from 2,000 cities with populations ranging from 20,000 to 350,000 to whittle the list down to 100. Census designated places, such as Bethesda, were included along with incorporated cities.

Madison, Wis. came in first with a livability score of 705. Rockville at 19 was the first Maryland city listed. The ranking cited the city’s “innovative biomed and technology companies,” its “quaint character and highly educated, highly paid residents,” and the Rockville Town Square area with its shops and restaurants.

The other Montgomery County cities that made the list are North Bethesda at 64 and Silver Spring at 72.

Frederick (32) and Towson (42) were also ranked as top cities by Livability.

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This is the second year Livability has ranked small and medium sized cities. Bethesda did not make the 2014 list as well, although in the first ranking census designated places were not included.

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