Washington’s capital city is one of the best to live in, report says. Here’s why

Washington is home to one of the best state capitals in the nation, a new report finds.

Olympia ranks No. 7 on a list that weighed safety, costs of living and other factors that make it popular to residents, according to results released this week from WalletHub.

To come up with the rankings, the personal finance website said it studied all 50 state capitals — using data from the U.S. government and other sources to determine the top places to live.

Olympia snagged one of the top 10 spots for quality of life, which is a measure of public safety, air pollution, transportation, take-out restaurants and sports. The city of more than 50,000 also fared well in quality of health care (share of population with health insurance) and educational opportunities (high school graduation rates, share of adults with college degrees.).

Washington’s capital had lower scores in other categories. Olympia ranked 18th for economic well-being, which examined debt, unemployment, income growth and other factors, results show.

It also ranked No. 34 for affordability, which is evaluated based on cost of living, median household income and housing costs.

Overall, the top-ranked city in WalletHub’s latest state capital report was Austin, Texas. Rounding out the top five were No. 2 Madison, Wisconsin; No. 3 Raleigh, N.C.; No. 4 Lincoln, Nebraska; and No. 5 Boise, Idaho.

This story was originally published January 21, 2021 at 2:47 PM with the headline "Washington’s capital city is one of the best to live in, report says. Here’s why."