Categories: Utah News

These 13 cities are the best places to live in Utah, according to U.S. News

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — A recent list from U.S. News & World Report ranked the best places to live in the Beehive State for 2025 and 2026 — and the state’s top 6 cities also ranked among the best places to live in the country.

A total of 13 cities in Utah made the cut and are considered the state’s “best,” with U.S. News analyzing data across several categories, including quality of life, housing affordability, crime rates, commute times, unemployment rates, and more. Utah’s 13 best cities (according to U.S. News) are as follows:

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  1. South Jordan
  2. Sandy
  3. Layton
  4. Lehi
  5. West Jordan
  6. Orem
  7. St. George
  8. Taylorsville
  9. Logan
  10. West Valley City
  11. Provo
  12. Ogden
  13. Salt Lake City

South Jordan, Sandy, Layton, Lehi, West Jordan, and Orem all recently ranked among the best places in the United States to live as well.

What makes these the ‘best’ cities?

Each city included in the list earned its spot after being given an overall score out of 10 possible points. South Jordan, Sandy, and Layton (the top three cities) all earned more than 6 points on the 10-point scale, while the last 10 cities on the list range from 5 points to 5.9 points.

The best cities in Utah tend to have commute times that are shorter than the national average of 22 minutes (with only two Utah cities having slightly longer commute times). When comparing housing costs to median household income, Utah’s best cities also offer “a better value than similarly sized cities,” according to U.S. News.

Utah’s top five cities (South Jordan, Sandy, Layton, Lehi, and West Jordan) each have a median household income of over $100,000, according to U.S. News. The median rent for the top five cities reportedly ranges from $1,208 to $1,604 per month.

While Salt Lake took 13th place out of 13 cities in this ranking, it has ranked highly among the best places to start a career and 2025 summer travel destinations, according to recent WalletHub studies. Another analysis showed Salt Lake is popular with younger people who are shopping for homes.

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Learn more about what each of Utah’s best cities has to offer on U.S. News’ website.

About the methodology

“U.S. News & World Report’s Best Places to Live rankings help readers make the most informed decisions when choosing where to settle down,” U.S. News explains. “Cities in the rankings are evaluated using data from Applied Geographic Solutions (AGS) and U.S. News’ own internal resources.”

The data used to determine the rankings was sorted into five categories and then evaluated using information from a public survey where respondents voted for what they believed to be the most important factor when finding a place to live.

The five categories weighed by U.S. News include quality of life (education, economy, infrastructure, environment), value (housing affordability, cost of living), desirability (crime rates, weather, commute time), job market (unemployment rate, median household income), and net migration (whether people are moving to or from a city).

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