PENNSYLVANIA, USA — Editor's note: The above video is from May 18.
Harrisburg and Lancaster have both made U.S. News & World Report's list of best places to live in the United States for 2022-2023.
Harrisburg was ranked 35th, and Lancaster was ranked 61st out of 150 metro areas.
Harrisburg made the list due to its proximity to "the great outdoors," as well as "the scenery of the Susquehanna River on the trails of Riverfront Park, which also hosts many of the metro area's annual festivals and events," among other factors, according to U.S. News.
Lancaster was ranked because it "offers a balance between natural and commercial spaces that residents appreciate," also according to U.S. News.
"Expansive farms rub elbows with manicured suburbs, which lead right into the bustling city," the report states. "A short drive can take one through each of these environments."
U.S. News & World Report's Best Places to Live list is intended to help readers make the most informed decision when choosing where to move within the country, according to the report.
Data from the the U.S. Census Bureau, the FBI, the U.S. Department of Labor and U.S. News' own internal resources are used to determine proper rankings. The data compiled from these resources is categorized into five indexes: the Job Market Index, the Value Index, the Quality of Life Index, the Desirability Index, and the Net Migration Index.
The Job Market Index measures the strength of each metro area's job market, according to the methodology. To do this, U.S. News assessed the unemployment rate and average salary of each place.
The Value Index, or the Housing Affordability Index, measures how comfortably the average resident of each metro area can afford to live within their means, also according to the methodology. U.S. News then compared the median annual household income with the housing cost in each metro area, and then divided the blended annual housing cost by the blended median annual household income for the area.
The Quality of Life Index measures how happy residents are with their lives in each ranked area. To calculate these scores, U.S. News evaluated multiple aspects of life in each metro area using a weighted average. Some of these aspects included crime rates, the quality and availability of health care, and the quality of education in a given area.
The Desirability Index measures whether people want to live in a given metro area. To determine people's feelings, U.S. News polled approximately 3,500 people across the country to find out in which of the ranked metro areas they would most like to live, and then each metro area was ranked according to the percentage of the total votes, according to U.S. News.
And finally, the Net Migration Index measures whether people are moving to or away from each metro area; in other words, this index represents whether each area is actually attracting new residents, also according to U.S. News.
Using all these factors, U.S. News determined the 2022-2023 rankings. To learn more about the methodology, click here.
To view the full list, check out this link.
To learn more about why Harrisburg made the list, click here. For Lancaster, click here.