Austin, Texas—The Best Place to Live...
A city renowned for its casually elegant lifestyle, Austin is known as “The Live Music Capital of the World”. Austin serves as the capitol of the state of Texas and is home to The University of Texas at Austin.
Quick Facts:
Austin is located in Central Texas along the Colorado River, which forms a chain of lakes 150 miles long.
Austin has a temperate climate with 300 days of sunshine annually. Average temperatures range from 42° to 62° in the winter and 75° to 95° in the summer. Average rainfall is 32.49 inches.
Austin has over 14,000 acres of parkland.
The U.S. Census Bureau ranks Austin 16th in the nation in population size; as a metropolitan area it ranks 38th. The 2000 census indicated Austin’s population to be 656,562 and the Metropolitan Statistical Area to be 1,249,783.
Austin’s adult population is highly educated. Eighty-two percent of residents have graduated from high school, 35 percent have a bachelor’s degree and 11 percent have received a graduate degree.
Austin consistently ranks high on lists of best places to live, work, and play.
Rank List By
1 Best Places to Live—Big Cities MSN House & Home
1 Best City for Hispanics (2004) Hispanic
2 Best Large City for Relocating Worldwide ERC & Primacy
3 Best Places for Singles (2004) Forbes
3 Top Growth Cities U-Haul
3 Great Places to Live Life 2.0
4 Fastest Growing Cities Men’s Journal
4 Smartest Cities Men’s Journal
10 Interesting Neighborhoods Travel-Leisure, America’s Favorite Cities
18 Top US Destination Cities U-Haul
22 Top Rated Cities (2004) Cities Ranked & Rated by Sterling/Sander
26 Brainiest Cities American City Business Journals
27 Best Cities for Families Child.com
28 Large Kid-Friendly Cities (2004) Population Connection
32 Fiscally Fit Places Sperling’s BestPlaces
35 Best Places to Live Men’s Journal
Other Austin Accolades
• Austin ranks as the 4th Best City in Overall Standard of Living by Expansion Management, June 2006
• Austin ranks 2nd among the Top 10 Best Big Cities in the country by cnn.money.com, 2006
• Austin ranks as the 3rd Smartest City in the country by Bizjournals.com, June 2006
• Austin ranks in the Top 5 “Smart Places to Live” by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance and the AustinBusiness Journal, June 2006
• Austin ranked 28th in Best Places for Business and Careers by Forbes, May 2006
• Austin ranks 2nd in the 50 Best Places to Live by Men’s Journal, March 2006
• Austin ranks 6th in the Top 10 Cities for Walking by Prevention magazine, August 2006
• Austin ranks as the Best Place to Live in America for Hispanics by Hispanic magazine for the secondyear in a row, August 2005
• Austin ranks as the 2nd Best Place to Live for Moviemakers by Moviemaker Magazine, December 2005
• Austin ranks 3rd Best Wireless Place to Live in America by Livescience.com, June 2005
• Austin ranks 2nd among the 10 Best Places to Live, judging on financial, educational and quality of lifecriteria by Money magazine, July 2006
• Austin was included in the 8 Cheapest Places You'd Want to Live survey by Sperling's BestPlaces.comand msn.com, July 2006
• Austin ranks 2nd among the 50 Best Places to Live comparing the combinations of adventure,attractiveness, and affordability by Men’s Journal, April 2006
• Austin was voted the Best Place to Live for Future Business Locations by Expansion Magazine, August 2006
• Austin ranks 9th in the Top 10 Hot Cities for Entrepreneurs by Entrepreneur.com, September 2005
• According to Dog Fancy Magazine, Austin is one of the Top 10 Cities to Be a Dog, November 2005
• Austin ranks 8th of America's Cleanest Cities by Reader's Digest, July 2005
• Austin ranks 10th in the Top 10 Healthiest Cities in America by Sperling's, July 2006
• Austin ranks 11th in the 25 Best Running Cities in America poll by Runners World, July 2005
• Austin makes the cut as one of 50 Fabulous Gay-Friendly Places to Live by Gregory A. Kompes, December 2005
• Austin ranks 2nd on Vegetarian Times' Ten Greenest Cities list, July/August 2005
• Pollstar names Austin City Limits Music Festival the "Festival of the Year" during it's annual Concert Industry Awards, February 2006
• American Way magazine features "The Top 10 Lists of Great American Music" and Austin appears on three of the lists including "great music towns," "great bigger-is-better music festivals" o the Austin City Limits Music Festival and "sacred ground" for Threadgill's restaurant, June 2005
• Austin ranks 6th in a study by Silicon Valley naming the nation's Top Tech Hubs. The study compared businessand quality-of-life issues, claiming Austin has affordable housing, electricity and state taxes, September 2005
• Austin is among the Coolest Cities for Young Professionals according to Kiplinger.com, September 2005
• Austin ranks 1st among U.S. cities in the fourth annual Mayors Challenge rankings of the BestCities for Future Business Locations by Management magazine
• Each year, Intel ranks the Top 100 U.S. Cities and Regions with the Greatest Number of Commercial and Public Wireless Internet Access Points and Austin ranks third, October 2006
• Austin ranks 3rd in a list of America's Most Innovative Cities by the Wall Street Journal
Information You Can't Find on a Map
20 years in the Lake Travis area makes LORI WAKEFIELD an area expert.
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