The "Best" U.S. City for Women to Live in May Surprise You

If you’re looking to move, it can feel hard to narrow down the perfect city to live in — especially when you’re factoring in important conditions like the cost of housing, the job market, and what opportunities your dream city can offer. Put simple, it’s a huge decision to make. The city you live in shapes your daily life, sure, but it’s about so much more than that. Opportunities for career advancement, access to a plethora of things like great health care, a diverse culture scene, and access to nature are all determined by your city limits. Who doesn’t want all of those things close to home?

A new report from WalletHub attempts to make it easier to figure out at least one way to determine whether or not a city is right for you. The study reveals the best (and worst!) cities for women to live in, and it might be a solid guide if you’re deciding where (or where not) to move.

To compile the list of the best and worst cities for women, WalletHub compared 182 cities across 15 key indicators of living standards for women. The study focused on the medical yearly wages and unemployment rate for women to the quality of women’s hospitals and access to preventative health care.

WalletHub used data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Guttmacher Institute, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and more. WalletHub did not share how they defined women for this study, and it’s important to note that this advice and this ranking could be worthwhile for anyone who wants to factor in safety, wage equality, employment opportunities, and health care access while moving.

The 5 best cities for women are:

• Columbia, Maryland

• Fremont, California

• Huntington Beach, California

• Irvine, California

• San Francisco, California

The 5 worst cities for women are:

• Shreveport, Louisiana

• Augusta, Georgia

• Brownsville, Texas

• Gulfport, Mississippi

• Jackson, Mississippi

WalletHub ranked Columbia, Maryland — a suburb of Baltimore with a population of about 100,000 about 25 miles outside the city — as the best city for women in 2024, because of its high median annual wages for women after adjusting for the cost of living, at $59,230. Columbia, Maryland, has a population of 104,681 people, according to the 2020 census. It’s located between Baltimore and Washington, DC, and is officially part of the Baltimore metropolitan area.

In addition, the poverty rate for women is only 8.9%, the 12th lowest in the country. The study also found that the job market is also good for women in Columbia. The unemployment rate for women is slightly over 4%, the 27th lowest in the country.

Fremont, California, came in second place as the best city for women. The city ranks 36th out of the more than 180 cities for women’s job security. Six percent of women living in poverty, the third-lowest percentage in the nation.

Out of the cities on the list, Jackson, Mississippi, was ranked the lowest due to its low median earnings for female workers, low ranking for women’s health and safety, and high unemployment rate. Jackson, Mississippi, is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Mississippi. The city has a population of 153,701, according to the 2020 census.

Gulfport, Mississippi, the second most populous city in the U.S. state of Mississippi after the state capital, Jackson, ranked the second lowest — ranking similarly low in women’s economic well-being and social well-being and women’s health care and safety. Gulfport has a population of 72,926; the metro area has a population of 416,259.

To read the full study on the best and worst cities for women to live, check out WalletHub’s study.

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