The city of Madison ranked fifth in a recent Forbes Magazine list of America’s Best Cities for Young Professionals.
The study looked at which cities offered the best prospects for people aged 24 to 34 with a bachelor’s degree or higher. Forbes started with the 100 largest Metropolitan Statistical Areas (cities and their surrounding suburbs, as defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget) and ranked them on seven equally weighted factors.
Forbes considered local unemployment rates and 2014-2016 job growth projections, provided by Moody’s and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Forbes assessed the number of small businesses per capita as well as large ones, and factored in median salaries for 24- to 34-year-old employed college graduates. They also factored in cost of living.
Madison ranked high on the list for its low unemployment rate (4 percent), a high percentage of the population with bachelor’s degrees (42.1 percent) and an average yearly job growth of 2.3 percent (2014-16).
The top 10 cities on the list were:
1. Des Moines, Iowa
2. Raleigh, NC
3. Omaha, NB
4. Salt Lake City, Utah
5. Madison, WI
6. Boise City, Idaho
7. Provo, Utah
8. Austin, Texas
9. Denver, CO
10. Minneapolis, MN
