Baltimore ranked among worst places in U.S. to start a family

BALTIMORE, MD—With inflation leading some families to move to cities with a low cost of living, the personal-finance website WalletHub this week released its report on 2023’s Best & Worst Places to Raise a Family.

Baltimore was ranked near the bottom of the list, coming in at No. 175 out of 182 cities. Fremont, CA topped the list with Overland Park, KS coming in at No. 2.

To determine the most family-friendly places in America, WalletHub compared more than 180 cities across 45 key metrics. The data set ranges from housing affordability to school-system quality to the unemployment rate.

Best Cities for Families	Worst Cities for Families
1. Fremont, CA	173. Wilmington, DE
2. Overland Park, KS	174. Hialeah, FL
3. Irvine, CA	175. Baltimore, MD
4. Plano, TX	176. Shreveport, LA
5. South Burlington, VT	177. San Bernardino, CA
6. San Diego, CA	178. Newark, NJ
7. San Jose, CA	179. Birmingham, AL
8. Scottsdale, AZ	180. Detroit, MI
9. Gilbert, AZ	181. Memphis, TN
10. San Francisco, CA	182. Cleveland, OH

Best vs. Worst

New York has the most playgrounds (per square root of the population), 0.660762, which is 13 times more than in Hialeah, Florida, the city with the fewest at 0.050668.
Irvine, California, has the fewest violent crimes (per 1,000 residents), 0.51, which is 46.1 times fewer than in Memphis, Tennessee, the city with the most at 23.52.
Overland Park, Kansas, has the highest median family annual income (adjusted for cost of living), $127,698, which is 3.2 times higher than in Hialeah, Florida, the city with the lowest at $40,285.
Overland Park, Kansas, has the lowest share of families receiving food stamps, 1.85 percent, which is 22.9 times lower than in Detroit, the city with the highest at 42.31 percent.
Pearl City, Hawaii, has the lowest share of families living in poverty, 2.00 percent, which is 13.3 times lower than in Detroit, the city with the highest at 26.60 percent.

The full report can be viewed online here.