Best, Worst Places for Veterans to Live in 2020

One California City in Top 10 for Best Places for Veterans to Live

Irvine is the only California city to make the top 10 list of Best Places for Veterans to live. Three California cities were among the Worst Cities or Veterans to live, according to WalletHub.

With Veterans Day approaching and the COVID-19 pandemic leading to an increase in veteran unemployment, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on 2020’s Best & Worst Places for Veterans to Live.

The report compares the 100 largest U.S. cities across 20 key metrics, ranging from the share of military skill-related jobs to housing affordability and the availability of VA health facilities.

WalletHub also released the results of its 2020 Military Money Survey, which revealed that 75% of Americans agree that military families experience more financial stress than the average family. To help with that, WalletHub’s editors selected 2020’s Best Military Credit Cards, which provide hundreds of dollars in annual savings potential. Below are highlights from the reports, along with a WalletHub Q&A.

Best Cities for Veterans
1. Orlando, FL
2. Irvine, CA
3. Tampa, FL
4. Raleigh, NC
5. Austin, TX
6. Colorado Springs, CO
7. Virginia Beach, VA
8. Scottsdale, AZ
9. Gilbert, AZ
10. Minneapolis, MN

Worst Cities for Veterans
91. New York, NY
92. Fresno, CA
93. Anaheim, CA
94. Jersey City, NJ
95. Long Beach, CA
96. Baltimore, MD
97. Memphis, TN
98. Baton Rouge, LA
99. Newark, NJ
100. Detroit, MI

To view the full report and your city’s rank, please click here.

Military Money Survey & Best Military Credit Card

• 75% of Americans agree that military families experience more financial stress than the average family.
• Nearly 1 in 2 people think that poor financial literacy among military personnel is a threat to national security, 40% more than in 2019.
• 74% of Americans don’t think that the military does enough to teach financial literacy.
• 78% of military members don’t think they should have to pay interest on debt when deployed to a war zone.
• 46% of people think frontline healthcare workers should be paid more than members of the military and police officers.
• PenFed Power Cash Rewards is the best military credit card of 2020. It gives 2% cash back on all purchases to current and former members of the military (1.5% otherwise) and has a $100 initial bonus. There is no annual fee.

To view the full survey, please click here.