Maine’s Largest City Named One of Best Places to Live in the Nation

When it comes to quality of life, it's difficult to beat Maine.

This includes the state's largest city of Portland, which was recently named of the best in all of America in that very category.

The folks over at US News & World Report put together a list of the best cities in America when it comes to quality of life. It was no surprise to see Portland featured near the top of this report.

Portland was named the fifth best city in the country for quality of life, a very respectable showing indeed. The findings were based on scores and metrics put together by US News. The magazine analyzed data from various sources to come up with the rankings. You can read more about the methodology here.

Putting the data aside, it's still relatively easy to see why Portland scored so high. The city is a gem. Let's rifle off some of the reasons why Portland's quality of life is so outstanding.

-Incredible Food
-No Traffic
-Fun Night Life
-Easily Walkable
-It's Small
-Relatively Safe
-Vibrant Art Scene
-Affordable Entertainment
-Competitive Sports Teams
-Easy Access to Interstates
-Beautiful Scenery
-Easy Water Access
-Clean
-Respectable Suburbs
-Did I Mention the Food?

It also helps that Portland is relatively tiny when it comes to city living. It gives off an aura of a large town. Perhaps that will change in the coming years, but for now, it still maintains that incredible Maine "village" spirit.

Portland was the highest scoring New England city in the quality of life report, finishing just ahead of Boston (6th) and Hartford (8th).

Here are the four cities that finished ahead of Portland.

1. Ann Arbor, Michigan
2. Boulder, Colorado
3. Madison, Wisconsin
4. San Jose, California

I must say, that is a mighty fine grouping of cities that Portland finds itself associated with. There's nothing like being in the company of some of the best college towns in America, along with an underrated California hamlet.

Congrats to Portland on its high marks. It's nice to see more and more folks starting to find out how incredible the city and ultimately the state truly is. I know I'm lucky to live and work here.