WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Boulder and Fort Collins metro regions may have slipped a tad in the 2022 U.S. News & World Report Best Place to Live, but the cities still feature prominently on the publication’s annual list. 

Boulder, last year’s top place to live in the nation, fell three places to number 4, while Fort Collins dropped from 17th in the country to 54th.

Colorado Springs and Denver also performed well at numbers 2 and 55, respectively. 

“Three Colorado metro areas — Denver, Fort Collins and Boulder — have been experiencing catastrophic wildfire seasons. All fell from their previous rankings, as each of them had among the 15 lowest air quality scores out of the 150 metro areas on the list,” U.S. News & World Report said. 

U.S. News & World Report ranks the country’s 150 most populous metropolitan areas based on criteria such as quality of life, affordability, job prospects, net migration ratings and desirability. Data comes from the U.S. Census Bureau, the FBI, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Sharecare’s Community Well-Being Index and U.S. News’ own internal resources.