U.S. News & World Report published its “2026-2027 Best Places to Live rankings” earlier this week, evaluating 250 cities across the country.
Over 20 Florida cities appear on the list; however, many fan-favorite cities and towns did not make it. Including Miami, Orlando and Key West, just to name a few.
Did your hometown or favorite city make the list? Here’s a look at what did (and did not) make the U.S. News & World Report’s 2026 ranking.
The top city in Florida on the list was Parkland. The city ranked 14th out of 250, a significant gain from last year’s 59th place.
Parkland is located in Broward County, roughly 50 miles north of Miami and 111 miles east of Naples. According to its USN profile, Parkland has about 36,938 residents, with a median age of 39.9. The median household income in Parkland is $223,200, and the average commute time is about 30.2 minutes. The unemployment rate here is 2.53%.
If you want to buy a house in Parkland, the median home value is $896,250, according to the report. If you’re a renter, you can expect the median rent here to be $2,795.
Of the 250 cities on the list, 22 were from Florida. See the cities and where they ranked in the U.S.:
Of the 250 cities on the overall list, only 22 were in Florida, meaning some hot spots, hidden gems and major cities were snubbed. Here are some beloved major Florida cities and towns left off the list:
To see where they rank amongst Florida’s best cities, you can see the U.S. News & World Report’s list of the top 81 Florida places to live.
Carmel, Indiana, was crowned the best place to live in the country, up from 2nd place last year. Here’s the top 10 best places to live:
The ranking was determined by a methodology that measures the city’s job market, value, quality of life and desirability. These measures were weighted via a public survey of thousands of U.S. individuals who shared what they consider important in a place to live.
Officials noted that the methodology also factors in data from U.S. News’ internal resources, Applied Geographic Solutions, and U.S. government agencies, including the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Census Bureau, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Samantha Neely is a trending reporter for the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida, covering pop culture, theme parks, breaking news and more. You can get all of Florida’s best content directly in your inbox each weekday by signing up for the free newsletter, Florida TODAY, at https://floridatoday.com/newsletters.