Livability.com announces the release of its 10th annual Top 100 Best Places to Live list celebrating the best small and mid-sized communities across the U.S. The list is based on extensive research into relocation trends, economic variables and factors that influence quality of life.

Concord is one of the best places to live in the U.S. thanks to a safe community and performing well in the housing and cost of living and economy categories.

>> Click here to find out all the reasons why Concord made the list!

This year’s list is the most interactive to date, with a variety of filters that elevate user experience by tailoring the ranking to reflect specific priorities when it comes to choosing a place to live.

“There’s no one size fits all when it comes to finding the right place to live, and we want our ranking to help you find your best place,” says Amanda Ellis, Livability.com Editor-in-Chief. “That’s why this year’s list is not a ranking telling you the No. 1 to No. 100 best places to live in America. Instead, we’re leaving it up to each individual to filter and rank the categories that mean the most to them for a personalized top 100 ranking of the best places to live.”

Livability.com partnered with Applied Geographic Solutions (AGS) to curate the Top 100 Best Places to Live list based on roughly 100 data points measuring the economy, housing and cost of living, amenities, transportation, environment, safety, education and health. Users can prioritize which criteria are most important to them and indicate their preferred region, home pricing and population size to create their personalized Top 100 Best Places to Live.

Livability and AGS collected data for more than 2,000 U.S. cities with populations between 75,000 and 500,000, using a weighted algorithm to select the 100 best places to live. That algorithm also factored in additional affordability criteria based on an analysis of average rents and home prices relative to local income. The resulting list of 100 places represents the top 5% of U.S. cities with populations in the studied range.

“What’s truly unique about our annual Top 100 is its consistent emphasis on affordability and the small to mid-sized cities best positioned to offer reasonable costs relative to their location,” Ellis says. “Our Top 100 Best Places to Live celebrates places where you can still live a little after covering the costs of essentials like housing and transportation, where middle-income earners have a good shot at owning a home and where you can live the life and career you want.”

Per Livability’s emphasis on affordability, only cities with a median home value of $500,000 or less were included in the final Top 100 Best Places to Live. Read more about the list’s methodology here.

>> View their spotlight on Concord, NC here!

Livability.com highlights the best small to mid-sized cities and what makes them great places to live, work and visit. Through exclusive research and original content, we examine affordability, cultural amenities, talent attraction and more, celebrating the accomplishments of cities through various rankings, our annual Top 100 Best Places to Live and articles exploring the who, what, why and how behind the “where.” Livability.com is a division of Journal Communications, Inc., based in Franklin, TN.