PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island’s capital city ranks No. 117 on U.S. News & World Report’s 2025-26 Best Places to Live.
The report released Nov. 18 ranked the 150 most-populated metro areas in the U.S. Rankings were evaluated using data from sources that include the U.S. Census Bureau, FBI, The U.S. Department of Labor and U.S. News' own internal resources
This year, the data was categorized into four indexes: quality of life, job market, value and desirability with the metro areas receiving three scores: quality of life, value and overall.
Providence had an overall rating of 5.8 out of 10, scoring 6.9 for quality of life, and 5.2 for value. This was the second-straight year the city was ranked No. 117. Providence was ranked No. 86 in 2023-24 and No. 105 in the publication’s 2022-23 list.
U.S. News also ranked Providence No. 126 on its separate 2025-26 list of best places to retire.
Naples, Fla., is the best place to live for the second consecutive year. That city scored 6.8 for quality of life and 6 for value for an overall score of 7.1. Boise, Idaho, was second followed by Colorado Springs, Col., Greenville, S.C., and Charlotte, N.C.
San Juan, Puerto Rico, was ranked the worst place to live in the U.S. for the fourth consecutive year. The U.S. island territory’s capital had an overall rating of 4.6, scoring 6.2 for quality of life and 4.4 for value.
Detroit was the second-worst place to live in the U.S., according to the report, below Hartford, Conn., New Haven, Conn., Flint, Mich., and Trenton, N.J.
Of the remaining New England metro areas on the list, Portland, Maine, ranked No. 38, Boston ranked No. 88, Manchester N.H., ranked No. 103, Worcester, Mass., ranked No. 136 and Springfield, Mass., ranked No. 138.
The full report can be found here.
For the best places to retire list,
Providence had an overall rating of 6 out of 10, scoring 5 for housing affordability and 3.9 for health care. It was the only Rhode Island city that was listed.
Naples, Fla., also ranked No. 1 for best places to retire. That city scored 6.3 for housing affordability, 3.6 for health care and 7 overall.
Boston was ranked No. 29, Manchester N.H., was No. 31, Portland, Maine, was No. 58, Worcester, Mass., was No. 133, Springfield, Mass., was No. 140, New Haven, Conn., was No. 148 and Hartford, Conn., was No. 149.
San Juan, Puerto Rico, was No. 150.
The full list can be found here.