The Best Communities in Rhode Island

The Best Communities in Rhode Island

What makes a community great?

We all have reasons we love (or are frustrated with), the places we live. From schools and housing to taxes and crime rates, from cultural to recreational hotspots, our communities create places for us to live, work, raise families, and play.

Everyone might think theirs is the best, and while we don't want to insult hometown pride, GoLocalProv wanted to get to the bottom of it. What really is the best community in Rhode Island? What place, in a small state of 39 cities and towns, is the all-time best? Who gets the blue ribbon?

Figuring It Out

To translate a feeling into a reality, we went - where else? - to the data. With assessments created nationally by leading media sources like Kiplinger's and Money Magazine, we created our own set of criteria for what makes a community great.

Our researchers spent hours poring over measures from public sources that help define a great place to live. We gathered and assessed housing prices, tax rates, median household incomes, crime statistics, and school performance on standardized tests in elementary, middle, and high schools. We counted places to go out and have fun, from bars and museums, to theaters and golf courses. We even counted libraries.

From there, we created (again with guidance from national sources), a formula that combined, weighed, and averaged, our mountains of data. For the details on this process, go here. What emerged was a set of snapshots of our communities - in education, housing, safety, and culture... and of course, what community combined everything into a great overall package. 

What is Rhode Island's best community? Read on. Where's your community rank? Go here. And what's the reaction to our first-ever ranking? Take a look. 

Mostly, though, we want to hear from you. Share the piece, talk to your friends and neighbors.  And let us know what you think.