Choosing where to live and work after graduation might be one of the most difficult decisions for young adults. A new study analyzes a series of factors to consider when making this type of decision.
The researchers at CoworkingCafe looked at job opportunities, income levels, cost of living, lifestyle amenities, and other metrics in order to find the best U.S. cities for recent grads to start their careers. For an easier overview, these scores were combined into three main groups by area of interest: employment, financial, and lifestyle. To reflect a fair comparison, we segmented the cities into three population brackets: small, mid-sized, and large.
Here are our main findings for you:
- North Carolina stood out in our study with many locations – Raleigh took the 10th spot and Charlotte the 11th as two of the best large U.S. cities for recent grads to put down roots, while Durham and Cary were 3rd and 7th among mid-sized cities, respectively;
- Charlotte snatched 4th place by financial score with the 12th largest share of young population with employer-based health insurance coverage (64%);
- At the same time, Charlotte took the 16th spot by employment score, ranking 15th for the 42.4% of young population holding a bachelor’s degree;
- With 270 leisure establishments and 3 coworking spaces per 100,000 residents, Charlotte ranked 20th among similar-sized cities in the lifestyle category;
- Nationwide, Atlanta, GA had the highest overall score in its population bracket, with San Francisco, CA and Seattle, WA rounding out the podium of best large cities for recent college graduates.
