Americans have long been the world’s most insistently mobile people. Each year, around 12 percent of the population moves -- it’s like a giant game of musical chairs with 36 million players. We could attribute this to the young age of the nation itself, the advent of quick, cheap transportation, the constant pursuit of the “American Dream”, or a combination of it all. Either way, U.S. citizens are always on the lookout for the perfect place to call home.

Locally, we regularly hear comments like, “Why would anyone stay in Steubenville? This town has nothing to offer.” This can be very depressing, since a significant number of locals are putting in great efforts to make Steubenville a lovable city. Thanks to this unmotivating attitude, and despite all our civic improvement attempts, when someone moves to town for reasons other than a college education, our response tends to be, “Um, why? Steubenville has nothing to offer.” We helpfully shoot ourselves in the foot with this statement, when most of us have never even looked into how attractive the city of Steubenville might actually be to outsiders. So what does earn a city the title of “Best Place to Live”?

When deciding where to put down roots, many factors are in the eye of the beholder, such as climate, politics, and proximity to extended family. Other qualities are a little easier to gauge across the board: affordable housing, access to well-paying jobs, cost of living, good schools, and quality healthcare. Let’s take a look at where Steubenville stands in comparison to the best places to live in America, based on data gathered by the U.S. News & World Report. Data was categorized into five indexes for each city to definitively rank major metro areas: job market, value, quality of life, desirability, and net migration. Based on these rankings, Austin, TX is the #1 city in the U.S.

Quick Stats

(Based on these quick facts, we certainly see that it’s cheaper to live in Steubenville, and we have more rain, so that seems to make us pretty desirable.)

U.S. News is tragically not generous enough to provide easy equations to establish the ranking of any city, but they do have a helpful guide to their best places to live methodology, so we can at least discuss which areas Steubenville may be lacking in:

1. Job Market Index (20 percent)

The Job Market Index measures the strength of each metro area's job market. Using the average salary and the unemployment rate, they determine how likely residents will be to find employment and what their earning potential will be. We can't deny that Steubenville has a very high unemployment rate, and this can only be helped with time and the introduction of more businesses (possibly manufacturing) to the area.

2. Value Index (25 percent)

The Value Index measures how comfortably the average resident of each metro area can afford to live within his or her means, based on median annual household income and the annual cost of living. A low median annual income locally is certainly due in part to a lack of professional paid jobs in the area, but the cost of living makes this salary acceptable. Besides utilities costing an inordinate amount, the cost of living in Steubenville is 10 points below the national average of 100, which basically means Steubenville is cheaper than the US average.

3. Quality of Life Index (30 percent)

The Quality of Life Index measures how satisfied residents are with their daily lives in each ranked metro area, based on the following:

• Crime Rates (30 percent): Steubenville does have a high crime rate, but it's been decreasing in recent years, and thankfully the majority is not violent crimes.

• Quality and Availability of Health Care (10 percent): Steubenville has two hospitals within it's city limits, and multiple acclaimed hospitals within a 50 mile radius (Pittsburgh and Wheeling).

• Quality of Education (25 percent): Steubenville High School is one of the best performing high schools in the state of Ohio. Steubenville is also home to a private Catholic high school and grade school, multiple proficient public middle and grade schools, as well as Franciscan University and Eastern Gateway Community College.

• Well-being (15 percent): U.S. News uses the composite score from the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index (which analyzes resident satisfaction in the following areas: purpose, social, financial, community and physical) as a representation of whether or not residents of each metro area are generally happy with their day-to-day lives. Steubenville hasn't been included on such indexes yet, so this one's up to citizens to determine their happiness and make it known.

• Commuter Index (20 percent): Steubenville has a 17 minute commute time within city limits. We are also very centrally located to allow for less that 60 minute commute times to Pittsburgh, PA; Wheeling, WV; and St. Clairesville, OH.

4. The Desirability Index (15 percent)

The Desirability Index measures whether or not people want to live in a given metro area. To determine this, U.S. News polled people across the country to find out in which of the ranked metro areas they would most like to live. I am certain this means the "desirability" of a city is based entirely on vibes and personal preferences, which doesn't provide the city with a tremendous amount of information to use for improvement as a whole.

5. Net Migration (10 percent)

Net Migration measures whether people are moving to or away from each of the metro areas. While the Desirability Index measures whether or not a metro area is appealing, Net Migration represents whether or not a metro area is actually attracting new residents.

• Net Migration: Steubenville has a net migration of -40, meaning our population is steadily declining. We do, however, house a number of students at Franciscan each year, and given time and significant civic improvement, could potentially see those students someday finding the appeal in our small town and calling Steubenville home.