Location Data Methodology

Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional Price Parities, 2024 release (MARPP table for metro areas; SARPP table for the statewide fallback). 100 = national average.

Method:Each city is mapped to its Metropolitan Statistical Area using the Census Bureau’s July 2023 CBSA delineation (place → county → CBSA), and the MSA’s 2024 RPP values are used directly. For the 11 cities outside any metro area with published RPPs, the statewide RPP is used and the record is flagged with a “statewide” geography label.

Honest caveats: figures describe the metro area(shown under each city), not the city proper — Sacramento’s figure covers the Sacramento–Roseville–Folsom MSA. BEA’s housing component measures rents, so it understates differences driven by home-purchase prices and spreads look narrower than home-price-based indexes. That is the right measure for pensioners comparing ongoing cost of residence, but worth knowing. BEA does not publish groceries, transportation, or healthcare components at metro level, so those columns were removed rather than fabricated.

Source: NOAA NCEI, U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020, annual/seasonal by-station dataset (v1.0.1).

Method:each city is matched to the nearest station with complete annual TMAX, TMIN, and PRCP normals (airport/first-order stations preferred; max distance 33 miles, median 4.3). The station ID and distance are stored with each record so any figure is reproducible. Snowfall is shown as “No data” where the matched station lacks a snowfall normal. “Average sunny days” was removed — NOAA publishes percent-possible sunshine only for a limited set of first-order stations, and no per-city figure exists in any federal dataset.

Source: CMS Care Compare, Hospital General Information (pulled July 2026 from data.cms.gov).

Method:the count of Medicare-certified hospitals in the city’s county (or counties, for cities spanning county lines), and the mean CMS Overall Star Rating (1–5) across the rated hospitals in those counties.

Honest caveats:a county is not the same as “nearby” in big western counties; star ratings exclude VA and some specialty hospitals.

Source: FBI Crime Data Explorer (api.usa.gov/crime/fbi/cde).

Method:a city police agency’s combined violent + property crime rate per 100,000, divided by the national combined rate, × 100. 100 = national average. A city whose agency did not fully report the year (fewer than 12 months of actuals) is shown as “No data” — never estimated, and never shown as 0. Not every agency reports fully to FBI NIBRS every year; city police figures cover the city proper, not the metro.