Every figure on Cities Online comes from a public, official or widely cited source. We download the publisher's own files rather than copying numbers from other websites. Last checked October 18, 2026.
Which cities are included
Every incorporated city in the 50 states and DC with an estimated population of 75,000 or more on July 1, 2025, from the Census Bureau's Vintage 2025 city and town estimates, plus popular smaller cities (such as Bozeman, Asheville and Portland, Maine) and large unincorporated communities (census-designated places such as Arlington, Virginia and The Woodlands, Texas). "Growth since 2020" compares the July 2025 estimate with the April 2020 estimates base. Unincorporated communities are not in the yearly estimates, so their population is the ACS 2020-2024 average and they have no growth figure. 546 places in all.
Income, housing, people and commutes
From the Census Bureau's American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates, city level: median household income (table B19013), median home value (B25077), median gross rent (B25064, rent plus utilities), home ownership (B25003), median age (B01002), bachelor's degree or higher for adults 25+ (B15003), mean travel time to work (B08013 divided by B08303), how people get to work (B08301), poverty (B17001) and unemployment (B23025). Five-year estimates average 2020 through 2024, so they move more slowly than the headlines; dollar figures are in 2024 dollars.
Price levels and the salary calculator
The Bureau of Economic Analysis publishes Regional Price Parities for every metro area. An RPP of 110 means prices are 10% above the national average. We use the 2024 figures for all items, goods, housing, utilities and other services. Cities share their metro area's RPP, matched with the July 2023 metro delineations. The calculator multiplies your salary by the ratio of the two metros' all-items RPPs. It does not account for taxes or your own spending mix.
Weather
NOAA's U.S. Climate Normals for 1991-2020 give 30-year averages for each month. For each city we use the nearest weather station with full temperature and precipitation normals, preferring major airport and National Weather Service stations, all within 30 miles. Each city's weather page names the station and its distance. When that station has no snowfall normal, we take snowfall from the nearest station that has one, within 25 miles, and say so.
"Comfortable months" is our own simple rule, applied the same way everywhere: an average high between 62°F and 86°F, an average low of 42°F or more, and under 4.5 inches of precipitation. It is a starting point, not a forecast.
Taxes
State sales tax rates (state plus the average local rate) are from the Tax Foundation's State and Local Sales Tax Rates, Midyear 2026 (rates as of July 1, 2026). Top state income tax rates on wages are from the Tax Foundation's State Individual Income Tax Rates and Brackets, 2026 (rates as of January 1, 2026). Local income taxes, which some cities charge, are not included.
Population history, counties and ZIP codes
Population by year combines the Census Bureau's intercensal estimates for 2000 to 2010 (with the April 2000 estimates base and the 2010 Census count), the Vintage 2020 estimates for 2011 to 2019 and the Vintage 2025 estimates for 2020 to 2025. Counties come from the Census Bureau's 2020 list of places by county; we order them by how much of the city's land falls in each, using the 2020 ZIP Code Tabulation Area relationship files. ZIP code pages list the 2020 ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTAs, the Census Bureau's version of residential ZIP codes) that overlap each city, with ACS 2020-2024 figures for each ZCTA.
Time zone and elevation
Time zones and elevations come from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Elevation is for the city's center point, from GeoNames' terrain data, rounded to the nearest foot; it varies across any city.
Best places scores
The "best places to live", "retire", "young professionals" and "families" scores are our own, built only from the data above. For each measure we rank all 546 cities into percentiles, then combine them with fixed weights that each ranking page lists in full. They are a way to sort cities, not a verdict; your own priorities matter more, which is why the quiz lets you set them.
Places and ZIP codes
Search by ZIP code uses GeoNames postal code points (CC BY 4.0) and sends you to the nearest city we cover. City land area and locations come from the Census Bureau's 2024 Gazetteer files.
Natural hazards, home prices and air quality
Natural hazard risk is FEMA's National Risk Index for the county each city mainly sits in. It combines expected yearly losses from 18 hazards, such as floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, wildfire and earthquakes, with how vulnerable and resilient the community is, and rates counties from very low to very high. Home price changes come from the Federal Housing Finance Agency's all-transactions House Price Index for the metro area (or metro division), comparing the latest quarter with one and five years earlier. Air quality is the EPA's annual summary of daily Air Quality Index values for 2025 by metro area: the share of measured days rated good (AQI 50 or below) and the number of days unhealthy at least for sensitive groups.
Climate stripes
Each city's climate stripes use NOAA's nClimDiv county temperature data (version 1.0.0, October 2026 release) for its main county: the average of all twelve months for every complete year from 1895 (or the first year on record) to 2025. Each year is compared with the county's own 1901-2000 average. NOAA builds these values from weather stations on a 5 km grid and adjusts for changes in station locations, instruments and observing times, so they are better for long-term comparisons than any single station. Honolulu's county record starts in 1991, so it has no stripes. The stripes design is Ed Hawkins' (#ShowYourStripes).
Who moves where
Migration figures are the IRS Statistics of Income county-to-county migration data for 2022 to 2023: people (tax filers plus dependents) whose address on their return moved to a different county between the two filing years. They miss people who do not file, and the IRS suppresses very small flows. Each city uses its main county; Connecticut cities use the state's planning regions, which replaced counties in the data.
Disaster history
Disaster histories list every federal declaration in FEMA's OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries that named the city's main county, from 1953 to October 18, 2026, plus early statewide declarations made before FEMA designated individual counties. Statewide fire management declarations are left out because they do not apply to every county.
Sunrise, sunset and daylight
Sunrise and sunset times are calculated for 2026 at each city's center with NOAA's solar equations (using the open-source astral library), in local clock time including daylight saving time.
Best suburbs
Suburb rankings cover every incorporated place and census-designated place of 10,000 or more people in metro areas of a million or more (OMB 2023 delineations, places assigned by county). Within each metro we rank places on eight measures from the American Community Survey 2020-2024 and the 2025 population estimates and combine them with the weights shown on each page.
ZIP codes and towns
Every US ZIP code has a page with the Census Bureau's figures for that ZIP Code Tabulation Area (ACS 2020-2024): population, household income, home value, rent, median age and homeownership. The towns a ZIP covers, and their shares of its land, come from the Census 2020 ZIP-to-place relationship file; mailing names and counties come from GeoNames. Searching a town we don't have a full page for takes you to its main ZIP code.
My cities
The My cities map compares places using the same figures as the city pages (NOAA January highs, BEA price levels and Census population). Distances are straight lines between city centers. Reader trends use only the anonymous city lists people choose to share, and appear only for cities with at least five of them.
Points, badges and trusted locals
Contributors earn 2 points for each published contribution and 1 point for every reader upvote on it. Badges: Local voice (first published contribution), Neighborhood expert (25 points) and City guide (100 points). After 10 published contributions with nothing rejected in the last 90 days, a signed-in contributor's pros, cons, answers, things to do and favorites go live without waiting; photos and report cards are always read first, and we can remove anything later. "Lives in" details on profiles are self-reported.
Share images
The preview image for each city and comparison is generated from the same figures that appear on the page.
Things to do
The starting list for each large city comes from Wikidata (CC0): museums, parks, zoos, gardens, landmarks and venues located in the city that list an official website, ordered by how many Wikipedia language editions write about them. We review each list by hand, remove closed places and anything that is not an attraction, and look up a few missing landmarks by name. We link only to each place's own website. Readers then reorder the list with their votes and add their own picks. Indoor and outdoor labels come from the type of place.
What locals say
Report cards, pros and cons, questions and answers, things to do, local favorites and photos come from readers. A person reads each one before it is published; we remove ads, links, personal attacks and anything about private individuals. Averages appear only after five residents have rated a city, so a single opinion never stands in for a whole city. Businesses cannot pay to appear in local favorites or to move up. The "pros and cons" marked Data are generated from the figures on the page using fixed thresholds, the same for every city.
Photos
City photos come from Wikimedia Commons under CC0, public domain, CC BY or CC BY-SA licences. Each photo is credited on its page with a link to the original.
What we leave out
We don't publish crime rankings, school scores or "livability" indexes, because the public data behind them is patchy or not comparable from city to city. We would rather show fewer numbers that you can trust.