Idaho has three of the most livable US cities in 2024, new ranking shows. Here’s where

Shaun Goodwin
Darin Oswald/doswald@idahostatesman.com

Boise residents are accustomed to hearing about what a great place the city is to live — even if it is becoming more expensive — but the City of Trees and two other Idaho cities have made it onto the granddaddy of living rankings.

While most city rankings provide a brief overview of a city’s merits, marketing company Livability took a different approach in their recent assessment. Their comprehensive report cards delve deep into why each city made it to the top 100, providing a wealth of information that goes beyond the usual criteria.

Livability specifically focuses on small to mid-sized cities and its long list of analytics essentially boils down to three main metrics: affordability, opportunity and quality of life.

Boise cities ranked most livable

Three Idaho cities, Boise, Meridian, and Nampa, were included within Livability’s new top 100 list of most livable small- to mid-sized cities in America.

Boise got a score of 811, which is good enough to rank it as the 17th-best place to live in the United States. It’s an improvement for Boise, which, despite once holding the No. 1 spot in 2019, had fallen to No. 35 by 2022.

But it’s Meridian that can claim itself as the best place to live in Idaho based on the list. Boise’s neighbor to the west was ranked No. 13, with a score of 823. Nampa rounded out Idaho’s inclusions at No. 52 and a score of 750.

Camel, Indiana, topped 2024’s list, scoring 875 on Livability’s parameters. Cary, North Carolina, and Columbia, Maryland, round out the top three.

What makes Boise so livable?

Here’s what Livability had to say about Boise and why it was ranked so high:

“Boise is part refined, part rugged, and that suits residents just fine. The city of nearly 240,000 is at the junction of the Pacific Northwest and Intermountain West and is decidedly a great place to plant roots and grow a family or a business. There are numerous reasons why Boise is named one of the best places to live in the U.S., and it’s easy to see why so many people are planting roots there.”

Livability highlights Boise’s mix of manufacturing, agribusiness and tech companies, describing the city’s economy as “pretty much on fire.”

The American tech giant Micron is planning a $15 billion semiconductor plant in southeast Boise, while other tech companies such as Meta and Exycte are also building in the city. All in all, the projects are expected to create over 17,000 jobs for the City of Trees.

Livability also mentioned Boise’s plan to be carbon neutral by 2050 and the abundance of outdoor possibilities around the city.

“The playground that is Boise also can keep you busy outdoors from sunup to sundown with golfing, fishing, snow-skiing and hiking the tree-lined trails,” Livability writes.

Here are some other key statistics that Livability highlighted for Boise:

  • Average annual snowfall — 19 inches

  • Average annual rainfall – 13 inches

  • Sunny days — 206

  • Sales tax rate — 6%

  • Median home value — $473,902

  • Median household income — $80,557

  • Population — 237,757

  • Boise population was 205,671 in 2010

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