If you’re looking for a great place to raise a family, you might want to rethink South Texas. According to a new ranking by personal finance site WalletHub, several major Texas cities ranked among the worst in the United States for raising a family.
So just what makes for a great, family-friendly city? WalletHub said it takes the right combination of affordable housing costs, quality schools and healthcare systems, “opportunities for fun and recreation,” healthy environments, low crime rates, and positive socioeconomics, including a low poverty and unemployment rate.
WalletHub looked at data from the 150 most populated cities across the U.S., as well as at least two of the most populated cities in each state so that states with smaller populations could also be included in the ranking. The site’s analysts then gave each city a weighted score across “45 metrics” across overarching categories, including family fun, health and safety, education and childcare, affordability, and socioeconomics.
WalletHub looked at variables like how many playgrounds per capita a city has, what kind of weather, average commute times, regional air and water quality, access to healthy foods, violent crime rate, childcare services and healthcare accessibility, the number of two-parent households, housing affordability and more.
Brownsville, in particular, stood out for having the highest percentage of families living below the poverty line of any of the dozens of cities WalletHub analyzed, which contributed to its low overall score (136 out of 182) in the “socioeconomics” category. Brownsville was joined by San Antonio (133) and Houston (139) as the lowest-ranked Texas cities in that category. At 158 out of 182, Brownsville also ranked as the worst city in Texas in terms of affordability, followed close behind by El Paso (155) and Laredo (152). Meanwhile, at 161 out of 182, Corpus Christi ranked as the worst city in Texas in terms of “family fun.” Houston ranked the worst in Texas for “health and safety” at 175, while San Antonio came in at No. 154. Nearby Grand Prairie ranked the worst in Texas for “education and child care” at 171.
Among the Texas cities ranked among the “worst” in the country for raising a family were Corpus Christi (153), San Antonio (137), Houston (136), Dallas (135), Lubbock (126), El Paso (122), Brownsville (119), Garland (113), Arlington (103), Irving (96) and Laredo (91). Only five cities made it to the top half as part of the “best” cities: Fort Worth (87), Grand Prairie (85), Amarillo (74), Austin (22), and Plano (4).