HUNTINGTON, WV (WOWK) – A new study has ranked Huntington, West Virginia in the top 30 of the best-run among some of the largest US cities.
A study from WalletHub that examined 150 of the largest cities in the U.S. evaluated each city based on its financial stability, education, health, safety, economy, and infrastructure and pollution.
Based on the criteria, Huntington landed at 29th out of 150 on the list overall with a quality of city services ranking of 103 out of 150 with a score of 50.68 and a total budget per capita ranking of 15 out of 150. The study also ranks Huntington as having the 4th-lowest long-term debt outstanding per capita.
According to the study, the six criteria categories look into the following:
- Financial Stability looks at and compares the city’s credit rating and debt;
- Education looks at the K-12 school system and high school graduation rates;
- Health looks at multiple factors including average life expectancy, infant mortality rate, hospital beds per capita, quality of the public hospital system and the average daily COVID-19 cases and deaths in the past week per capita.
- Safety looks at violent crime rates, property crime rates, motor vehicle fatalities per capita, share of sheltered homeless persons, and perception of safety such as if a person feels safe walking alone during the day or at night.
- Economy looks at unemployment rates, under employment rates, median annual household income, median annual income growth rate, annual job growth rate, the share of population living in poverty, the growth in the number of businesses, the change in housing prices, the Zillow home value’s one-year forecast and building permit growth
- Infrastructure and Pollen looks at the quality of roads, average commute time, transit access shed, traffic congestion, amount of pedestrian friendly areas, amount of biking friendly areas, how well an area is served by public transit, recreation friendliness, share of residents with access to internet, water quality, air pollution, greenhouse-gas emissions per capita and share of parkland.
The data is collected from information from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics and other statistics and analysis research organizations.
For each of the categories individually, Huntington ranked 5th in Financial Stability, 51st in Education, 123rd in Health, 101st in Safety, 111th in Economy and 33rd in Infrastructure and Pollution.
The top 30 best-run cities included in the study are:
- Nampa, Idaho
- Boise, Idaho
- Fort Wayne, Indiana
- Nashua, New Hampshire
- Lexington-Fayette, Kentucky
- Lincoln, Nebraska
- Las Cruces, New Mexico
- Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
- Missoula, Montana
- Durham, North Carolina
- Virginia Beach, Virginia
- Rapid City, South Dakota
- Raleigh, North Carolina
- Billings, Montana
- Provo, Utah
- Chesapeake, Virginia
- Sioux Falls, South Dakota
- Salem, Oregon
- Manchester, New Hampshire
- Mesa, Arizona
- Huntington Beach, California
- Charleston, South Carolina
- Albuquerque, New Mexico
- Madison, Wisconsin
- Arlington, Texas
- Columbus, Georgia
- Greensboro, North Carolina
- Cedar Rapids, Iowa
- Huntington, West Virginia
- Bismarck, North Dakota
Charleston, West Virginia also made the list, coming in at 93rd out of 150. In each category, the Capitol City ranked 123rd in Financial Stability, 20th in Education, 144th in Health, 121st in Safety, 36th in Economy and 101st in Infrastructure and Pollution.
