QoL Rank
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Florida

Florida has a quality of life score of 47/100 (C, average) and ranks #29 of 51 states. Its strongest category is education (69) and its weakest is cost of living (23). Its top-rated larger counties are St. Johns County, Seminole County, Nassau County.

  • Safety: 47
  • Cost of living: 23
  • Education: 69
  • Quality of life: 49

Key figures: violent crime 268.0 per 100,000 people a year (US 345.2); median rent $1,669 a month; median home value $359,000; median household income $73,283; life expectancy 78.1 years.

Counties in Florida, best first

  1. St. Johns County 64
  2. Seminole County 60
  3. Nassau County 59
  4. Santa Rosa County 58
  5. Sarasota County 57
  6. Collier County 56
  7. Wakulla County 55
  8. Clay County 54
  9. Orange County 53
  10. Walton County 53
  11. Charlotte County 52
  12. Pinellas County 52
  13. Indian River County 51
  14. Monroe County 51
  15. Flagler County 51
  16. Hillsborough County 51
  17. Leon County 51
  18. Okaloosa County 50
  19. Martin County 50
  20. Baker County 50
  21. Sumter County 50
  22. Alachua County 49
  23. Pasco County 49
  24. Palm Beach County 48
  25. Lake County 48
  26. Broward County 47
  27. Brevard County 47
  28. Miami-Dade County 47
  29. Hernando County 46
  30. Lee County 46
  31. Columbia County 45
  32. Bay County 44
  33. Volusia County 44
  34. Manatee County 44
  35. Lafayette County 44
  36. Washington County 43
  37. Gilchrist County 43
  38. St. Lucie County 43
  39. Osceola County 43
  40. Suwannee County 42
  41. Taylor County 42
  42. Glades County 42
  43. Franklin County 41
  44. Levy County 41
  45. Duval County 41
  46. Union County 40
  47. Dixie County 39
  48. Polk County 39
  49. Gulf County 39
  50. Hardee County 38
  51. Liberty County 38
  52. Calhoun County 37
  53. Escambia County 37
  54. Bradford County 37
  55. Jefferson County 37
  56. Highlands County 36
  57. Citrus County 35
  58. Okeechobee County 35
  59. Jackson County 34
  60. Holmes County 34
  61. Marion County 33
  62. Putnam County 31
  63. DeSoto County 29
  64. Hendry County 29
  65. Madison County 28
  66. Hamilton County 23
  67. Gadsden County 22

Your priorities

Choose how much each category counts toward the overall score. The map, rankings and every place’s overall score update as you go.

About the data

Every county is compared with every other US county, and every state with the other states.

Each measure becomes a percentile from 0 to 100, where 100 is always best. For crime, deaths, disaster risk, costs and commutes, the lowest value is best. A category score averages its measures’ percentiles and is then scaled so all four categories have the same spread around 50, so each counts equally. The overall score is the average of the four. 50 is a typical place, and most land between 35 and 65. Your priorities lets you weight the categories differently.

Grades: A 65 and up, B 55–64, C 45–54, D 35–44, F under 35.

Each category lists a county’s own figures next to its state’s and the US figures. Under the state and US columns, Difference shows whether the county is higher or lower, as a share of that figure (hover for the exact gap). Rank shows where it ranks instead: “ranked 75%” means it does better than 75% of the counties in its state, or in the US. A green arrow or dot means the county does better, red means worse.

Compare puts any two places side by side, counties or states, in any state. The better value in each row is highlighted.

A county gets an overall score only if all four categories have data and at least 60% of the measures are present. Small counties often have suppressed data, and without this rule they rank at the top on just a few numbers. Top 10 lists only include counties with at least 10,000 people.

What’s measured

Limitations

Sources