Oh sure, the weather is fine, the people look sexy, and the beaches stretch for miles, but that doesn't mean life is all good in the 305.
According to a new analysis by Nerd Wallet, Miami has the lowest quality of life of any big city in the entire United States. To make matters worse, Hialeah actually has a better quality of life than Miami, though it's still ranked third-to-last.
The study didn't take into account superficial things such as weather, entertainment options, and sports teams' success, like so many similar rankings do, but rather focused on the cold, hard economic facts. Here are the three stress-causing factors the study zoomed in on:
1. Income, affordability, and health benefits: Income, cost of living, and health insecurity can be a great source of stress, so we included median annual rent as a percentage of median earnings for full-time, year-round workers in addition to percentage of population with health insurance coverage.2. Local economy: We looked at the percentage of people with income below the poverty level and the local unemployment rate.
3. Work-life balance: We included mean weekly hours worked as well as mean travel time to work to see where people work fewer hours and spend less time commuting.
According to the Huffington Post, Miami came in dead last of the 100 cities analyzed. Santa Ana, California, was second, and Hialeah was third.
Granted, there are tons of people in Miami living a quality of life that most folks only ever dream of, but reality is far more grim the average resident.
Here's how Miami stacked up:
OVERALL QUALITY OF LIFE SCORE
40.22092788
MEAN TRAVEL TIME TO WORK MINUTES
26.9
MEAN WEEKLY HOURS WORKED
38.5
MEDIAN ANNUAL RENT AS PERCENTAGE OF MEDIAN INCOME
35.86%
PERCENT OF PEOPLE WITH INCOME BELOW POVERTY LEVEL
31.70%
PERCENT OF POPULATION WITH HEALTH INSURANCE COVERAGE
64.50%
UNEMPLOYMENT RATE
6.30%
And Hialeah:
OVERALL QUALITY OF LIFE SCORE
44.18423983
MEAN TRAVEL TIME TO WORK MINUTES
25.9
MEAN WEEKLY HOURS WORKED
36.9
MEDIAN ANNUAL RENT AS PERCENTAGE OF MEDIAN INCOME
46.47%
PERCENT OF PEOPLE WITH INCOME BELOW POVERTY LEVEL
24.40%
PERCENT OF POPULATION WITH HEALTH INSURANCE COVERAGE
64.10%
UNEMPLOYMENT RATE
6.30%
High levels of uninsured residents, poverty levels in the double digits, and the increasingly high price of rent plague both cities.
In case you're looking for somewhere new to move, try Madison, Wisconsin. It was ranked number one. But of course you'll have to deal with winter.
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