Madison residents now have data-driven proof that their city is number one.

Livability’s Top 100 Best Places to Live ranked Madison as first, jumping from fifth last year. Livability ranks small to midsize cities on the list according to amenities, demographics, economy, education, health care, social and civic capital, housing and transportation.

Madison Mayor Paul Soglin said the city improved in the category of “walkability” since last year’s ranking, offering many biking, walking and public transit options.

But Soglin said while the city was proud of the rankings, there are other areas it needs to work on.

“The key challenge for us now is to make sure that this becomes the best city for everyone,” Soglin said. “As we attempt to close the disparity in equity, we have serious challenges to meet in regards to the academic and educational success of low-income families. That is our primary mission.”

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Livability analyzed more than 2,000 cities in its study, and other cities ranking highly include that rank highly on the list include Minnesota’s Rochester, as well as Arlington, Boulder and Palo Alto.

Matt Carmichael, editor of the Livability website, said Livability uses data from the most trusted industry standard vendors they can find, and although “no data is perfect, [they] choose as well as [they] can.”

Carmichael said his two favorite parts of the ranking process are the anticipation of seeing the end results and revealing to city officials that their city is featured on the list.

“The other best part of this, frankly, is getting to talk to all the mayors and the community leaders as we’re putting together the stories, especially the top ten,” Carmichael said. “I would say overall the mayors in the country are really smart and really talented people, and they have a lot of great ideas about how to improve their communities.”