Top Metros With the Best Work-Life Balance

Knowing a metro topped the list for best work-life balance can be a selling point for buyers. The pandemic caused Americans to reevaluate their lives, including spending time with family and having more time to relax and enjoy life. SmartAsset analyzed the walk score, arts, entertainment and recreation establishments, restaurants, housing costs, average weeks per year, and more to identify the top cities with the best work-life balance. Midwest cities stole four out of the top 10 slots with Madison, Wis. coming in first for the second year in a row. SmartAsset says Madison has the second-lowest average hours worked per week at 36.4 hours.

Key Findings
Big city commuting blues. On average in our study, just 7.2% of commuters spend more than 60 minutes getting to and from work. In the biggest U.S. cities, though, that number can be much higher. For instance, 15.7% of commuters have a commute of at least an hour in San Francisco. In Boston, that figure is 11.9%. The city where the most commuters spend at least an hour on the go? New York City, where relatively packed subways and busy streets mean 27.2% of commuters spend at least an hour on travel alone, leaving even less time for recreation. New York also has the longest 2019 average commute time, at 41.7 minutes.

Midwest consistency up top. Four Midwestern cities – Madison, Wisconsin; Lincoln, Nebraska; Omaha, Nebraska; and Columbus, Ohio – also made the top 10 in this study last year. Three of these cities – Madison, Lincoln and Omaha – excel because of their low unemployment rate, finishing in the top 10 this year. Columbus finishes a bit lower (20th) in that metric, but it does particularly well in terms of low housing costs as a percentage of income, ranking sixth.

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