checking all the boxes
Playful Plano excels as 4th best U.S. city for families in 2024
Plano's annual Artfest is a great way to spend time with your family.
Happy-go-lucky Plano is standing strong as one of the nation's best cities to raise a family, according to a new report from WalletHub.
The 2024 edition of the personal finance website's "Best & Worst Places to Raise a Family (2024)" study ranked Plano in the No. 4 spot for the fourth year in a row since 2021. The top three cities also remained the same since the 2023 report: Fremont, California (No. 1); Overland Park, Kansas (No. 2); and Irvine, California (No. 3). Seattle, Washington rounded out the top five.
The report annually ranks 182 of the most populous U.S. cities across five main categories: Family fun, health and safety, education and childcare, affordability, and socioeconomics. Factors that helped determine Plano's top-five spot in the report include the number of playgrounds per capita, the city's walkability, air quality, school-system quality, cost of living, the city's separation and divorce rate, and much more.
Plano performed the best in the categories for socioeconomics (No. 4), health and safety (No. 5), and affordability (No. 7). The city's education and childcare rank fell a little behind at No. 29, while the family fun rank took the biggest hit in performance, ranking No. 74.
Plano has received a lot of praise for its family-friendly qualities in 2024. A recent SmartAsset study ranked Plano the second-happiest city in the nation, and its amazing park system was (once again) lauded as the best in Texas.
In the report, WalletHub analyst Cassandra Happe said it can be a challenge for potential parents to find the "right" city to live in that checks all the boxes for raising a family. Besides having an affordable cost of living, families have to consider a city's safety, its education system, and opportunities for recreational activities.
"On top of all of these factors, people also often want to raise their children close to their extended family," Happe said. "Therefore, current or prospective parents can benefit from narrowing down their choices to a few of the best cities that are within a reasonable drive of their family."
Across North Texas
Besides Plano and Fort Worth (No. 86) – which moved up four places from its previous rank as No. 90 last year – it appears a majority of Dallas-Fort Worth cities slipped further down the list in 2024.
Dallas dipped three spots from its former No. 138 rank down to No. 141 in 2024, and Grand Prairie fell from No. 51 to No. 63. Irving sank from No. 85 to No. 97 this year, and Arlington only fell two spots into No. 99. Garland tumbled out of the top 100 into No. 111 this year, after ranking No. 98 in 2023.
Here's how other Texas cities fared in the report:
- No. 19 – Austin
- No. 72 – Laredo
- No. 77 – Brownsville
- No. 80 – Amarillo
- No. 96 – El Paso
- No. 107 – Lubbock
- No. 134 – Corpus Christi
- No. 138 – San Antonio
- No. 145 – Houston
