It’s time to pop some champagne, LAL. 🍾 Why? Two reasons:

It’s Monday. (Do we really need to elaborate on this point any further?)
Lakeland was recently ranked as one of the Best Places to Live by U.S. News & World Report.

Lucy’s got some celebratin’ to do. | gif via Giphy

Our little Swan City was listed no. 61 out of 150 other cities in the US – and landed smack dab between Atlanta, GA + Indianapolis, IN.

LAL’s overall score was 6.6/10. Here’s how we scored in each section + what it means. ⬇️

6.5/10 on “Quality of Life.” Multiple aspects of life were evaluated via surveys, along with statistics concerning crime rates, health care availability, education quality, and more.
6.7/10 on “Desirability.” This concerns peoples’ opinions about living in the area. To find this, 3,000 people were surveyed about where they’d want to live in the US.
5.9/10 on “Job Market.” The unemployment rate + average salary were factored in to determine how strong the job market is currently.
9/10 on “Net Migration.” Net Migration determines whether the area is attracting new residents and this data was pulled from the U.S. Census Bureau.
6/10 on “Value.” This metric measures the comfort levels for residents when it comes to area affordability. Results were determined by comparing “median annual household income with the housing cost in each metro area.”

And if that isn’t enough of a reason to celebrate, Lakeland was also recently listed as one of the top places in the US to retire. Time to bring on the golden years.

Celebrate these rankings by sharing this news with a friend you’d like to pop some bubbly with. 🥂