St. Louis Rankings

St. Louis Rankings

In addition to having a strong business environment, St. Louis is a pleasant place to live, offering friendly neighborhoods, affordable cost of living, and a vast range of things to do. Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine ranked St. Louis as one of the smartest place to live on its 2006 list of "50 Smart Places to Live".

Find out a few reasons why St. Louis has been recently noticed for its exceptional quality of life:

Best Place to Live

Forbes magazine ranked St. Louis No. 4 on its "Most Affordable Places To Live Well" list in November 2007, which rated cities according to housing affordability, cost of living, quality of life, and best arts & leisure offerings.

Webster Groves, Mo. was named as one of the "10 Best Towns for Families" by Family Circle magazine, August 2008. The magazine searched the country to find perfect places to live and raise kids, based on affordable home prices, student/teacher ratios, and residential recycling programs. Webster Groves was noted for its historic Victorian homes, landmark buildings, close community, and small class sizes.

Expansion Management magazine named the St. Louis MSA as a Four-Star Quality of Life Metro in 2007.

Three St. Louis communities, St. Charles, St. Peters, and O'Fallon, Mo., ranked among the 100 best places to live in the nation on Money magazine’s 2008 list of “100 Best Places to Live.” The ranking looked strong local leadership, employment opportunities, thriving community commitment, improving real estate markets, growing green initiatives, plentiful recreational options and an overall high quality of life.

O'Fallon, MO and St. Louis City, MO were recognized as best places to live in the nation on Relocate America's "Top 100 Places to Live in 2010". The rankings are based on strong local leadership, employment opportunities, thriving community commitment, improving real estate markets, growing green initiatives, plentiful recreational options and an overall high quality of life.

St. Louis ranked as the 18th smartest place to live on Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine's first list of "50 Smart Places to Live" in 2006 based on criteria of median home price, cost of living, economic vitality, education, health care, local arts scene, and recreational facilities.

Forbes magazine ranked the culture in St. Louis No. 16 of 40 in a 2009 survey of "Best Cities for Singles."

Best City for Young Professionals

Forbes magazine named St. Louis the 15th "Best City For Young Professionals" in the July 2008 issue based on the high share of best big businesses and small businesses that call St. Louis home, the number of graduate students attracted to the region, the never-married population and the salary to cost of living ratio.

Best City for Relocating Families

St. Louis ranked No. 9 among large metro areas in the U.S. 2007 Best Cities for Relocating Families ranking by Worldwide ERC and Primacy Relocation. The study was based on factors such as cost of living, crime rates, education, climate, arts and culture, diversity, and number of physicians per capita.

Best Place to Raise a Family

The St. Louis region was named one of the top 100 best places to raise a family by Best Life magazine in 2008 based on favorable student-teacher ratios, above-average test scores, plenty of museums, parks, and pediatricians, safety, length of commutes and more. The study evaluated 257 cities, and St. Louis ranked No. 92.

Most Bicycle Friendly

Bicycling magazine named St. Louis No. 38 on its list of the 50 Top Places to Ride in the United States in the May 2010 issue. Each city was rated on its vibrant and diverse bike culture, as well as its smart, savvy bike shops. Bicycling magazine notes that St. Louis has over 73 miles of on-street bike routes and praised the region's participation in National Bike to Work Day.

St. Louis was ranked as a top "Bicycle Friendly Community" in the United States by the League of American Bicyclists for 2009. The League noted St. Louis' progress in completing several noteworthy projects within the past year, which include 53 new miles of on-street additions to the bikeway system, a $10 million investment, and an expansion of bicycling education offerings for children and adults. Overall, the state of Missouri ranks 17 out of the 50 states, while St. Louis is listed in the top 15 out of 318 cities.

Best City to Buy a Home

In February 2010, Forbes magazine named St. Louis No. 8 on its "America's Best Housing Markets" list based on low foreclosures, rising home prices, and affordability.

Most Recession Proof Market

After examining average income for seniors, current and expected home prices, job-growth predictions through 2014, cost of living, and median monthly housing cost, Forbes magazine named the St. Louis region the fifth most "Recession-Proof Cities To Retire In" in the nation for October 2009.

Most Affordable

In August 2007, Forbes magazine named St. Louis the 7th "Most Affordable U.S. Real Estate Market."

St. Louis was named the second-most affordable large metropolitan area in the country by the National Association of Home Builders in 2008.

Arnold, Mo. ranked No. 13 out of 25 for "2008 Most Affordable Communities" with fewer than 50,000 residents by Money magazine. The magazine noted that the median home price in Arnold in 2007 was $119,600, and Arnold has about 400 acres of parks, three public swimming pools, a fishing lake, and a new Jefferson College campus.

Top Sites and Attractions

Busch Stadium, home to the St. Louis Cardinals, was named No. 6 on Fox Sports' list of The 10 best ballparks in Major League Baseball for 2010. The ranking noted a bustling downtown crawling with fans dressed in red and prevailing hospitality, in addition to Busch Stadium's "handsome brick exterior, the friendliest ushers ever, the views of the city, the ability to watch the game from the sidewalk outside, and the mix of old and new that typify the contemporary class of parks," which all make it a top venue.

The Pageant ranks No. 4 on Pollstar's "Top Club Venues in the World", according to Pollstar's 2008 annual lists. The Fox Theatre ranks No. 11 among the top 100 theater venues in the world, and Verizon Wireless Amphitheater ranks No. 9 on the list of worldwide amphitheaters, according to that same list.

The Saint Louis Science Center was named No. 5 on the "10 Best Science Centers for Families" in the country by Parents magazine, September 2008. This is the second recent recognition the Saint Louis Science Center has received for being top in the nation. Forbes Traveler magazine recognized the Science Center as one of the nation's Top 25 Most Visited Museums in 2007. It was the only Missouri museum to be named on the list.

The Delmar Loop in University City and St. Louis was named among the 10 Great Streets in America for 2007 by the American Planning Association's Great Places in America program. APA Great Places exemplify exceptional character and highlight the role planners and planning play in creating communities of lasting value.

The Saint Louis Zoo, located in Forest Park, was named No.3 on Parents magazine's "10 Best Zoos for Kids" in the May 2009 issue. The Saint Louis Zoo was also ranked the No. 1 Midwest city zoo in July 2007, according to the Chicago Tribune. The rankings were based on animal collections, display and overall zoo-going experience.

Art on the Square, a local art fair in Belleville, IL, was named the No. 1 best art fair in the nation out of 600 annual art fairs for 2007 by Art Fair Source Book.
The St. Louis Art Fair in Clayton was ranked No. 4 on Art Fair Source Book's "Top 25 Fine Art Events" in the nation for 2009.

The St. Louis City Museum in 2005 was named one of the “World’s 10 Best Public Spaces” by the New York-based Project for Public Spaces.

Most Underrated Destination

Praised for its cultural attractions, lodging, food, and fair prices, St. Louis was named as one of the "Most Underrated Destinations of the World" for 2009 by the Los Angeles Times, noting that "St. Louis has the best value of any urban destination anywhere".

Most Literate

The St. Louis region ranked No. 2 in the country for library services on the 2009 "America's Most Literate Cities" study published by Central Connecticut State University. In addition, St. Louis was named the 11th most literate city overall for 2009, based on six key indicators of literacy, which included newspaper circulation, number of bookstores, library resources, periodical publishing resources, educational attainment, and Internet resources.

Most Generous

St. Louis was named one of the nation's most generous large cities for 2010 ranking 8th, based on 2009 per capita online giving and total amount donated online with total populations of more than 100,000.

St. Louis ranked as having the 10th highest volunteer rate in the nation among large U.S. cities for 2010, according to a study published by the Corporation for National & Community Service. The study found that St. Louis had a volunteer rate of 31% in 2009, with 709,200 adult volunteers contributing an average of 38.7 hours of service per resident.

Top Historic Preservation Destination

St. Louis was named as one of the National Trust for Historic Preservation's 2010"Dozen Distinctive Destinations", which ranked cities on their offerings of cultural and recreational experiences that differ from those found at the typical vacation destinations.

Most Eventful City

St. Louis ranked in the top 25 "2007 Most Eventful Cities" by Eventful.com, which ranks cities based on the total number of events listed on its site that took place in each U.S. city from August 2006 to August 2007. The rankings provide a valuable insight into the character and vitality of U.S. cities. New York, New York took the No. 1 spot on the list.

Safest Food

St. Louis ranked as the 2nd safest city from food borne diseases out of 101 metro areas with an A+ grade by Men's Health magazine in February 2008. The study looked at the number of outbreaks of food borne illnesses per capita, deaths caused by food borne diseases, and states which have adopted the FDA's most current Food Code, which contains the most up-to-date rules for keeping restaurant kitchens clean.

Real Estate Investment

HomeVestors of America Inc. named St. Louis No. 8 in the nation for real estate investing in the second quarter of 2008.