Photo by Chris Wieland.
Normally, the sort of rankings reports that we come across are predictably arbitrary and, well, silly. Top city for binge-watching? Tenth preppiest city? Millennial haven? The “coolest” city in America? Enough said.
But sometimes, a rankings report comes across our desks that provides insight as to how our city stacks up with others in areas of significance to certain residents. With Veterans Day tomorrow, personal finance website Wallet Hub crunched data to determine the best cities in the country for veterans. Out of the top 100 cities, Washington, D.C. ranks as the 14th best for veterans.
In its analysis of methodology, Wallet Hub determined their rankings by comparing taking a look at the biggest issues facing veterans in 2014—things like the percent of military skill-related jobs, the veteran unemployment rate, rate of veteran wage growth, the number of veteran-owned businesses per veteran population, rate of job growth, and “emotional health” ranking—and collected the necessary data for the 100 most populated cities in the country.
With D.C. ranking as number 14 of 100, Wallet Hub found that it’s within the top ten of cities for the percent of military skill-related jobs (ninth), rate of job growth for veterans (eighth), “emotional health” (seventh), and the rate of veteran wage growth (first). Where we fall behind is in the veteran unemployment rate (28th) and the number of veteran-owned businesses per veteran population (50th).
You can check out the visuals below and the full report to see how D.C. compares to other cities here.