Miami Named the Sixth Worst Place to Have a Baby in the U.S.

If you’re pregnant in Miami, you should probably start planning your escape.

That’s the message The Daily Beast sent with its list of “The 15 Worst Cities to Have a Baby, From New York to Miami.” Miami ranks at number six on the list, behind L.A., Santa Cruz, and yes, New York City.

Inspired by recently released data from the USDA on the cost of raising children, the Beast determined the absolute worst places in the country to procreate using research from Redfin, the American Medical Association, the U.S. Census, and other sources. Here’s how Miami shook out:

Cost of baby’s first year: $21,300

Cost as percentage of household income: 47%

Ob/Gyns per 100,000 residents: 12.1

Population under 5 years old: 5.8%

Avg. commuting time: 27.4 minutes

Playgrounds per 10,000 residents: 1.4

The average American family, according to the Beast, spends $250,000 to raise a child to the age of 17.

Some of the criteria the Beast measured seems arbitrary — why include commute times but not school rankings, daycare costs, publicly funded infant healthcare services, etc? The list may as well have been called “The 15 Most Expensive and Least Convenient Places to Have a Baby.”

Still, Miami’s ranking as the sixth worst place to reproduce is extra damning, given that American births are the costliest in the world. Pregnancy, and early childhood health and care services, have gotten so expensive in recent years that more and more women are opting to wait to have kids until they feel more financially secure in their own lives.

Here’s the Beast‘s full ranking:

1. New York City, NY

2. Santa Cruz, CA

3. Los Angeles, CA

4. Hagerstown, MD

5. Worcester, MA

6. Miami, FL

7. Santa Rosa, CA

8. Bremerton, WA

9. San Francisco, CA

10. Riverside, CA

11. Providence, RI

12. Portland, OR

13. Modesto, CA

14. Boston, MA

15. Chicago, IL

Follow Ciara LaVelle on Twitter @ciaralavelle.