Naperville’s safe, livable. An ideal spot for someone seeking to indulge in a good, old-fashioned suburban lifestyle. Where gardening in your birthday suit may not be so out there.
Or so say some of the best-of lists the city has found itself on in recent weeks. Since April, Naperville has made the grade in 2024 for being among the Top 100 Best Places to Live in the U.S.
as determined by the publication Livability; Safest Cities in America, per the home security review site Safewise; Top Destinations for a “White Picket Fence” Lifestyle, from DatingNews.com; and Best Cities for Naked Gardening, from online platform LawnStarter. Alas, heavy is the crown.
Livability’s appraisal was the most holistic of Naperville’s latest rating accolades. Focused on mid-size cities with populations between 75,000 and 500,000 people, the publication’s best places to live list decided who made the cut based on a slew of factors from walkability to air quality. In all, Livability bases its ranking on about 100 different data points, according to its website.
Those divide into eight broad categories, including: economy, housing and cost of living, amenities, transportation, environment, safety, education and health. Data is pulled from the U.S.
Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Department of Education, Housing and Urban Development, and Department of Homeland Security, among other agencies and private sources. Based on their performance across factors, cities earned a grad.