Fort Collins ranks high as new grads’ place to live, work
FORT COLLINS — The “Choice City” is among the top choices among small metropolitan areas as a place to live for those seeking good places to find work and live after they graduate from college.
Fort Collins ranked fourth on the list of small metros in the American Institute for Economic Research’s “newly released Employment Destination Index,” just behind Ann Arbor, Mich.; Bridgeport, Conn.; and Lincoln, Neb. Denver ranked fourth among the largest metropolitan areas, just behind Washington, San Francisco and Boston.
The researchers “identified what captures young people’s imagination and entices them to test the waters in cities large and small,” said Rosalind Greenstein, AIER’s director of research and education. “We looked at the factors pointing to why the young — those 22 to 35 years of age — and the well-educated — those with at least a bachelor’s degree — moved to a new city. We found that once they’ve made the decision to move, they are influenced by urban life and city amenities more than by economic conditions.
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“We can explain about 70 percent of young movers’ decisions with quality-of-life factors and only about 30 percent with economic factors,” she said. “We interpret that to mean, after making the economic decision to move, the young and educated are looking for places where they can have a meaningful work/life balance.”
Cashing in on its “beer, bikes and bands” mantra, Fort Collins ranked first among the small metros for bars and restaurants and third for arts and entertainment. It also scored third for educational opportunities, but only 18th for diversity and 19th for earnings.
“Compared with many other small metros in the Midwest,” the researchers wrote, “Fort Collins shows relatively low dependency on cars, with its high volume of bicycle traffic.”
The annual survey analyzed 260 cities of all sizes, ranking them on nine factors, including diversity of residents, ease of commuting, average earnings and median rents. Not surprisingly, the list of top scorers was heavy with college towns.
