ORLANDO, Fla. – This week, WalletHub released its ranking of the most caring cities in the U.S. — and it reveals the least caring in the Sunshine State.
The study looks at factors like civic health, violent crime, poverty, and first responders to determine which areas are the most “caring.”
“The most caring cities donate a lot of money to charity and have high volunteer rates, but being a caring city overall requires much more than just giving time or money,” WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo said. “In the top cities… residents also display their care for others by working in professions that help others, like teaching, social work, firefighting and medicine, at high rates.”
Overall, the top three cities turned out to be Virginia Beach (No. 1), Boston (No. 2), and Scottsdale (No. 3). In fact, Florida didn’t even rank within the top 50 cities.
The first Florida metro to appear on the list comes in all the way down at No. 51: Tampa, which scored fairly high for community caring in particular.
But the lowest-ranked Florida city on the list turned out to be Orlando, which came in all the way down at No. 84.
The City Beautiful had a middling performance when it came to “caring for the vulnerable,” but its community and workforce scores lagged behind all the way down in the bottom 10 cities on the list.
The full ranking of Florida cities in this year’s study is as follows:
RankCityTotal ScoreCommunity RankVulnerable RankWorkforce Rank51Tampa57.2538467855St. Petersburg56.7155377865Jacksonville54.6451649374Hialeah52.4048898381Miami49.9879698384Orlando49.89924491
The methodology used in this study breaks down into the factors listed below.
Caring for the Community (50%)
Violent crime rate
Property crime rate
Average alcohol-impaired driving fatalities per capita
Driving fatalities per capita
Pedestrian fatality rate
Share of workers who carpool
WalletHub’s “Energy Efficiency” ranking
Civic engagement
Favors for neighbors
Presence of “Built for Zero” communities
Food and clothing distribution to the needy
Share of residents who fundraise or sell items to raise money
Share of income donated to charity
Online giving per capita
Volunteering hours per capita
Share of registered volunteer fire departments
Google search interest for “charitable donations”
Caring for the Vulnerable (40%)
Child poverty rate
Adult poverty rate
Adoption rate
Availability of paid family leave
Share of sheltered homeless persons
Rehabilitation centers per capita
Pet shelters and rescue services per capita
Animal protection laws ranking
Disability friendliness of employers
Uninsured rate
Caring in the Workforce (10%)
Residents who work in community and social services per capita
Physicians per capita
Nurses per capita
Special education teachers per school-aged people with disabilities
Teachers’ care for students’ well-being
Counselors’ care for students’ well-being
Childcare workers per total number of children
Substance abuse, behavioral disorder and mental health counselors per capita
Personal care aides per capita
Firefighters per capita
Paramedics per capita
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