This Georgia city ranks No. 1 on list of nation’s top places to live. Here’s why
Georgia is home to the nation’s best place to live — and the city beat out hundreds of others to win the crown, a new report finds.
Johns Creek ranks No. 1 on a list of cities that offer residents a top-notch quality of life at lower costs, according to U.S. News & World Report.
“While quality of life remains the top priority for many Americans — and has the heaviest weight in determining the Best Places to Live rankings — U.S. News slightly adjusted its weights to increase priority for a location’s job market amid heightened economic uncertainty,” Erika Giovanetti, consumer lending analyst for the website, wrote in a May 20 news release.
To determine the most livable places for 2025 to 2026, U.S. News said it studied more than 850 places across the country. It worked with Applied Geographic Systems, which used data from the federal government and the market research company MRI-Simmons, to score each place in five categories: “quality of life, affordability, desirability, job market, and net migration.” U.S. News also surveyed roughly 3,500 people to determine which of the five factors were most important to people.
Why the Georgia city ranks No. 1
Of the cities that landed in the top 250 spots on the U.S. News list, Johns Creek reigned supreme. The Georgia city, a roughly 25-mile drive northeast from downtown Atlanta, “strives to support its residential community with exceptional parks and greenspace, innovative infrastructure and connectivity, a burgeoning Town Center and a vibrant business community,” according to its website.
In the U.S. News report, Johns Creek boasted the nation’s highest ranking for safety. But the accolades for the Atlanta suburb of about 81,000 people didn’t end there.
“Johns Creek, Georgia, takes the top spot due to its strong desirability and job market scores,” categories that considered crime rates, weather, entertainment options, commute times, unemployment rates and median household incomes. The city also had “moderately high quality of life and value scores,” according to U.S. News.
It’s not the first time Johns Creek has been recognized on a wide scale. In 2023, the city topped a list of the best places to live in the Southeast.
In those rankings, the website Livability gave the suburb nods for its “excellent schools,” health care jobs and “natural beauty.” The city also was praised for being an “inclusive” place that offers programs to celebrate various cultural traditions, McClatchy News reported.
On the latest list from U.S. News, here are the other destinations that rounded out the top five places to call home:
- Carmel, Indiana, at No. 2
- Pearland, Texas, at No. 3
- Fishers, Indiana, at No. 4
- Cary, North Carolina, at No. 5
McClatchy News reached out to U.S. News for additional information about its methodology.
