Colorado Springs and Boulder were ranked as some of the best places to live in the United States in 2022, .
Colorado Springs was ranked as second overall, falling only behind Hunstville, Ala. The city got a score of 6.4 out of 10 for quality of life and 5.7 for value.
The rankings also gave Colorado Springs, which has a median age of just under 35 years, a score of 10 for desirability.
The list said the city’s landscape falling below Pike’s Peak — the inspiration for “America the Beautiful” — makes Colorado Springs a beautiful place to live. The mix of suburbs with a bustling downtown also brought the city to the top of the list.
“Despite the sprawl, people regularly stop to say hello to someone they know at their neighborhood brewery or grocery store,” the ranking said. “That’s the small-town scene the city aims to preserve.”
Boulder was ranked as fourth on the list, with a score of 7.7 for quality of life and 5.1 for value. The city was described as a haven for nature lovers along with “young professionals, families, academics, scientists, transplants from both coasts, old guards who insist it was way cooler in the 1970s,” but the cost of living was listed as a concern for Boulder.
“Living ‘in the Boulder bubble,’ as itap sometimes called, comes at a steep price,” the list said. “A halo of open space and rural land surrounds the city, limiting the amount of new housing construction and driving up prices for existing homes.”
Fort Collins and Denver were ranked 54th and 55th on the list.
