2021’s Best & Worst Places to Raise a Family.

San Bernardino is among 10 of the worst cities to raise a family while Irvine is among the best cities to raise a family, according to WalletHub, which  today released its report on 2021’s Best & Worst Places to Raise a Family.

San Bernardino is  located in the Inland Empire region of Southern California. As one of the Inland Empire’s anchor cities, San Bernardino spans 81 square miles on the floor of the San Bernardino Valley to the south of the San Bernardino Mountains. As of 2019, San Bernardino has a population of 215,784 making it the 17th-largest city in California and the 102nd-largest city in the United States.

California State University, San Bernardino is located in the northwestern part of the city.

Government, retail, and service industries dominate the economy of the city of San Bernardino. From 1998 to 2004, San Bernardino’s economy grew by 26,217 jobs, a 37% increase, to 97,139. Government was both the largest and the fastest-growing employment sector, reaching close to 20,000 jobs in 2004. Other significant sectors were retail (16,000 jobs) and education (13,200 jobs).

In December 2020, MoneyGeek, a financial website that analyzes the cost of crime per resident in 300 large U.S. cities, including 73 in California,  deduced that San Bernardino is the state’s most dangerous city.

To determine the most family-friendly places in America, WalletHub compared more than 180 cities across 48 key metrics. The data set ranges from housing affordability to school-system quality to COVID-19 cases.

Best Cities for Families

1. Overland Park, KS
2. Fremont, CA
3. Irvine, CA
4. Plano, TX
5. Columbia, MD
6. South Burlington, VT
7. Seattle, WA
8. Scottsdale, AZ
9. Gilbert, AZ
10. Madison, WI

Worst Cities for Families

173. Montgomery, AL
174. Miami, FL
175. San Bernardino, CA
176. Wilmington, DE
177. Birmingham, AL
178. Newark, NJ
179. Hialeah, FL
180. Memphis, TN
181. Cleveland, OH
182. Detroit, MI

Best vs. Worst Cities to Raise a Family

  • New York has the most playgrounds (per square root of the population), 0.629307, which is 12.7 times more than in Hialeah, Florida, the city with the fewest at 0.049557.
  • Irvine, California, has the fewest violent crimes (per 1,000 residents), 0.64, which is 30.7 times fewer than in Detroit, the city with the most at 19.65.
  • Overland Park, Kansas, has the highest median family annual income (adjusted for cost of living), $119,957, which is 3.5 times higher than in Newark, New Jersey, the city with the lowest at $34,753.
  • Overland Park, Kansas, has the lowest share of families receiving food stamps, 2.42 percent, which is 18.2 times lower than in Detroit, the city with the highest at 44.11 percent.
  • Fremont, California, has the lowest share of families living in poverty, 2.70 percent, which is 11.1 times lower than in Detroit, the city with the highest at 30.00 percent.

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

Image Sources

  • San Bernardino: Shutterstock