As a millennial, any time I see an article with a title “best ____ for millennials,” I click on it. Recently that led me to Niche.com’s ranking of the best cities for millennials. My generation grew up with TV shows including Friends and How I Met Your Mother, which made cities such as New York look like a blast. Now, as we graduate college and move into the workforce, we seek to replicate the lives of those characters: hanging out in bars and coffee shops with our friends. Personally, I’m not a big city person, but I think the Niche.com list reflects what most people in my generation are looking for when it comes to life after graduation.
Some 232 cities (with more than 100,000 residents) were evaluated, mainly using U.S. Census data.
The cities were judged in several categories including easiest commute, residents 25–34 years old, crime and safety, millennial newcomers, unemployment rate, access to bars, access to restaurants, access to coffee shops, median rent, percentage change in employees, rent-to-income ratio, higher-education rate and resident diversity.
The top 10 best cities for millennials in the United States are:
- Cambridge, Mass.
- Manhattan
- Alexandria, Va.
- San Francisco
- Jersey City, N.J.
- Seattle
- Washington, D.C.
- Berkeley, Calif.
- Boston
- New York City
Cambridge is made up of 27.7 percent millennials, 6.9 percent of which have moved to the city within the past year. Looking specifically at Manhattan, the borough’s millennial residents make up 22.1 percent of the population, 3.1 percent of which came to the city in the past year. Northern Virginia’s Alexandria consists of 24.4 percent millennials, and 6.2 percent are newcomers.
Every city in the top 10, with the exceptions of New York City and Berkeley, has a millennial population above 20 percent of the city’s total population. Millennials are drawn to these cities for job opportunities, proximity to bars and restaurants, and diverse communities.
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Zoë Wolff is a reporter with Institutional Real Estate, Inc.
