Methodology & Data Sources

PlainRelocate is a relocation-intelligence portal: it turns raw federal data into relocation profiles you can compare metro to metro. This page documents exactly how that relocation intelligence is built.

Data Sources

PlainRelocate combines public data from nine federal agencies, joined at the metropolitan statistical area (MSA) level. Metro definitions and population come from the U.S. Census Bureau. Every score and figure on the site is computed directly from these sources plus two authoritative non-federal tax-guide sources used for our Retirement Friendliness Score (see below), no proprietary data, no undisclosed inputs:

• Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) - Regional Price Parities (RPP): Cost-of-living indices by metro, reflecting actual price differences for goods, services, and housing. The cost dimension and salary purchasing-power adjustments.
• Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) - Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics: Median wages by metro. The jobs / wage dimension.
• Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) - Fair Market Rents: Annual 40th-percentile gross rents for studio through 4-bedroom units by metro. The housing / rent dimension.
• Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) - Uniform Crime Reporting: Violent and property crime rates (state level where metro-level reporting is incomplete). The safety / crime dimension.
• National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) - Public School Data: Student-teacher ratios and school counts by state/metro. The schools dimension.
• Department of Labor (DOL) - Childcare Cost Data: State-level center- and family-based childcare cost estimates. The childcare (family cost) dimension.
• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) - Air Quality System (AQS): Annual median Air Quality Index (state level where metro-level monitoring is incomplete). The air / environment dimension.
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) - Climate Normals (1991–2020): A temperature-and-comfort index by metro. The climate dimension.
• Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) - Disaster Declarations + NOAA Storm Events: Frequency of federally declared disasters and severe-weather events. The natural-hazard dimension.

The Two Scores

PlainRelocate publishes two complementary composite scores. Both are percentile-based: each metro is ranked against all others on every dimension (0–100, where 80 means the metro outperforms 80% of metros on that dimension), then the dimensions are combined with the weights below.

LiveAbility Score (8 dimensions)

The headline score used on the rankings and the City Finder. It weighs the eight factors that most shape a move:

• Cost of living (BEA RPP): 18%
• Job market, median wage (BLS): 15%
• Housing, rent (HUD FMR): 15%
• Safety, crime (FBI UCR): 12%
• Schools (NCES): 12%
• Air quality (EPA AQS): 10%
• Natural hazard (FEMA + NOAA): 10%
• Climate comfort (NOAA): 8%

The City Finder lets you override these defaults to match your own priorities, turn up jobs, turn down climate, and the ranking re-orders live.

Life Score (7 dimensions)

A family-cost-oriented score shown on each metro profile, weighting cost of living, wages, rent, crime, schools, childcare, and environment. It complements the LiveAbility Score by giving childcare its own weight, useful for households comparing the day-to-day cost of raising a family across metros.

Retirement Friendliness Score (state-level, 7 dimensions)

A separate state-level score shown on our retirement rankings, combining income tax treatment of Social Security/pensions/401(k) withdrawals, effective property tax rate, presence of a state estate or inheritance tax, cost of living, safety, public-services investment (using student-teacher ratio as a proxy), and climate. Two additional sources power the tax dimensions of this score: Tax Foundation state tax guides (income, property, and estate tax figures) and AARP state-by-state retirement tax guides.

Why Jobs Are Weighted at 15%

A relocation is, for most people, partly an economic decision. An earlier version of the LiveAbility Score weighted the job market at only 5%, which let very affordable but economically depressed metros rise to the top of a "best places to relocate" list while their weak wage markets went almost unaccounted for. We raised the job-market weight to 15% so the ranking better reflects the trade-off between affordability and earning potential. You can still set jobs to whatever weight you like in the City Finder.

Salary Purchasing-Power Adjustment

When comparing salaries between metros, PlainRelocate adjusts for cost of living using BEA Regional Price Parities. A $100,000 salary in a metro with RPP 120 has roughly the same purchasing power as ~$83,000 in a metro with RPP 100. This makes salary comparisons meaningful across markets with very different price levels.

Processing Pipeline

We load each federal dataset individually, normalize the geographic identifiers across agencies (which use slightly different MSA definitions), and join everything by CBSA code into unified metro profiles. Percentile scores are computed by ranking every metro against all others on each dimension; the composite scores apply the default weights above. Where a metro lacks a value for a dimension, that dimension is excluded and the remaining weights are renormalized rather than scored as zero.

Update Schedule

Each source publishes on its own cadence, BEA RPPs, BLS wages, HUD FMRs, and NCES school data are annual; FBI UCR crime data lags 12–18 months; EPA AQS, NOAA, and FEMA refresh on their own schedules. We rebuild our database as new releases become available, so individual dimensions may reflect slightly different vintages at any given moment.

Data Access & Reuse

The full LiveAbility dataset, all 387 metros, all 8 scored dimensions, is available as a downloadable CSV under a CC0 (public domain) license: reuse, republish, or build on it freely, attribution is appreciated but not required. It's also wired into machine-readable Dataset markup on the statistics page for discovery via Google Dataset Search and AI/GEO tooling. Individual charts throughout the site carry a self-citation affordance (source, vintage, canonical URL) if you're quoting a specific figure.

We do not currently run affiliate links, sponsored placements, or a paid API tier - every figure on the site is free to read, and the CSV export is free to reuse. If that changes, it will be disclosed here.

Limitations

• Crime and school data are state-level for metros where granular federal data is not reported, and labeled as such. State averages may not reflect individual city conditions.
• BEA Regional Price Parities are published with an 18–24 month lag from the reference year.
• HUD Fair Market Rents reflect the 40th percentile and may not match current listing prices in fast-moving markets.
• Composite scores reflect a specific weighting and may not capture factors important to you that are not in our model (commute, culture, specific employers).
• This tool is a starting point for relocation research, always visit and verify before making major life decisions.

Editorial Workflow

PlainRelocate is a data-first publication by PlainRelocate. Every metro and state profile, score, and ranking is generated programmatically from the federal datasets listed above, the numbers are loaded directly from the source and are not hand-edited. The explanatory text (guides, methodology, FAQ) exists to help readers interpret the data. We do not accept payment for coverage, placement, or rankings; scores are computed directly from federal data. If you spot a figure that misreads a source, the correction link on our contact page reaches the team.

Not Affiliated

PlainRelocate is not affiliated with the BEA, BLS, FBI, HUD, NCES, DOL, EPA, NOAA, FEMA, Census Bureau, Tax Foundation, AARP, or any government agency. This site is for informational purposes only and does not provide financial or relocation advice.

Frequently Asked Questions