As One Colorado Town Ranks Among Best Small Cities in U.S, Another Hits Rock Bottom

In Colorado, small-town living runs the gamut.

Two Colorado towns sit at the very top and very bottom of a list of the best small cities to live in the United States, according to a WalletHub study released on Thursday, September 30.

Castle Rock ranked in the 99th percentile, meaning it performed better than 99 percent of the 1,318 cities on the list. Castle Rock scored best in the safety category, ranking 44th overall. It placed in the top 100 for education, affordability and economic health, and 436th for quality of life.

Three other Colorado cities made it in the 90th percentile or higher: Parker, Broomfield and Windsor.

This is the latest of many accolades for Castle Rock. The town of around 80,000 people located 30 miles south of Denver has landed on other recent national lists for the highest quality of life (sixth), top suburban moving destination (25th) and best places to live (top 100).

On the opposite end of the spectrum, three Colorado towns placed in the bottom 20th percentile or lower: Fountain, Northglenn and Pueblo West.

Pueblo West was placed in the first percentile — the lowest possible position on the list. The sparsely populated community seven miles west of Pueblo is home to around 33,000 residents across 26,830 acres.

Of the 1,318 cities analyzed, Pueblo West ranked 1,311th in safety, 1,310th in quality of life and 1,213th in education. It only scored better than 1,000th in economic health (855th) and affordability (228th).

The study analyzed cities with populations between 25,000 and 100,000 people on 45 metrics, including median household income, housing costs, crime rate, population growth, unemployment rate, high school graduation rate and number of attractions.

In total, sixteen Colorado towns were featured on the list. The percentile groupings are as follows:

1. Castle Rock — 99th percentile
2. Parker — 93rd percentile
3. Broomfield — 90th percentile
4. Windsor — 90th percentile
5. Lafayette — 87th percentile
6. Littleton — 80th percentile
7. Loveland — 78th percentile
8. Wheat Ridge — 71st percentile
9. Grand Junction — 64th percentile
10. Longmont — 62nd percentile
11. Englewood — 42nd percentile
12. Brighton — 33rd percentile
13. Commerce City — 31st percentile
14. Fountain — 20th percentile
15. Northglenn — fifteenth percentile
16. Pueblo West — first percentile