Miami Suburb Among Worst Places to Raise a Family in U.S.

Miami-area cities regularly rank at or near the top of various nationwide studies — U.S. News and World Report calls Miami one of the best party cities, business publication Quartz ranks Magic City among the best for luxury shopping, and TripAdvisor places Fort Lauderdale Beach among the nation's top.

But a recent WalletHub finding paints a few South Florida cities in a less flattering light, ranking Hialeah, Fort Lauderdale, and Miami among the worst places to raise a family. And, because other rankings regularly place Miami among the most expensive and vain places in the United States, few are likely surprised by the diss.

WalletHub looked at 182 cities and considered 45 metrics in its rankings. The top five were family fun, health and safety, education/child care, affordability, and socioeconomics.

"Finding the best place to raise a family is difficult, between balancing an affordable cost of living with good educational opportunities, safety, and enough recreation to keep kids entertained," WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo said in a statement. "On top of all these factors, people also often want to raise their children close to their extended family.

"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."

WalletHub ranked Hialeah 173, bookended by New Orleans and Jackson, Mississippi. The city was near the bottom in categories like family fun, affordability, and socioeconomics. It ranked in the top 60 cities in health and safety and education/child care, but its other low scores dragged it to the bottom of the overall list.

Miami ranks a bit higher at 164, a slot above Montgomery, Alabama. Although the city ranked in the top 100 for family fun, health and safety, and education/child care, its low scores on affordability (181 — surpassed only by Hialeah at 182) and socioeconomics (155) pulled its overall ranking near the bottom-dwellers.

Fort Lauderdale ranked a slot higher than its southern neighbor at 163, with scores over 100 in all metrics except education/child care, where it ranked 75th.

WalletHub ranked Fremont, California; Overland Park, Kansas; Plano, Texas; Irvine, California; and South Burlington, Vermont, as the top five places to raise a family.

Memphis, Tennessee; Detroit; Cleveland; Gulfport, Mississippi; and Newark, New Jersey, ranked at the bottom of WalletHub's list.