Sources

BestCityFor uses public, auditable datasets. We prioritize sources that are national, consistent across cities, and update reliably.

Current dataset generated: 2025-12-22T00:30:52.027Z

Census Gazetteer (city list)

We use the Census Gazetteer “Places (National)” file to define the universe of incorporated places and to get stable GEOIDs + lat/lon for each city proper.

Official source: Census Gazetteer Files

Census ACS 5-year (metrics)

Most metrics come from the American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year estimates (ACS 2023 in the current build). We fetch table variables via the Census API and compute derived shares (WFH, broadband, education, age 65+). Housing uses ACS median gross rent for 2-bedroom rentals and ACS median home value.

API endpoint: https://api.census.gov/data/2023/acs/acs5
Census API documentation: ACS 5-year API

NOAA climate normals (optional)

Climate inputs are optional in v1. If NOAA data is available during a build, we compute a simple “climate comfort” index to incorporate into some vertical scores.

NOAA NCEI API: Climate Data Online (CDO) API