Places Rated Almanac makes headlines around the country with its candid, fascinating look at all the factors that contribute to our quality of life. This sometimes controversial bestseller, completely updated with all new 1997 statistics, is packed with timely facts and unbiased information on more than 350 metropolitan areas in North America.

Anyone who's mulling over the idea of relocating, trying to decide where to start out, or just curious about how his or her hometown stacks up against the competition will be intrigued by Places Rated Almanac.

Places Rated Almanac ranks each metropolitan area on a number of essential factors, many of which are of vital interest in today's economy. They include:
-- Job markets
-- Cost of living
-- Housing markets
-- Educational standards
-- Quality and availability of public transportation
-- Health care and recreational facilities
-- Crime rates
-- Culture and leisure opportunities
-- Environmental factors
-- Climate

Easy-to-use charts help readers put this wealth of information to work to find the places that best suit their special needs and interests.

Packed with unbiased, reliable and up-to-date information, this one-of-a-kind guide offers something to amuse or intrigue on every page!

Amazon.com Review
Looking to live somewhere where houses are cheap? Head to Waterloo-Cedar Falls, Iowa, where the average home costs $75,700, and annual property taxes for that home are about $960. Perhaps a good job market is a higher priority. In that case, pick Phoenix, Arizona; Las Vegas, Nevada; or Riverside, California, as they top the list of places projected to have the highest-percentage increase in new jobs by 2005. Most of those jobs, by the way, are expected to have above-average pay. This and other detailed information can be found in the sixth edition of Places Rated Almanac, a helpful resource for people thinking of relocating as well as those with a desire to learn about cities and towns. Metropolitan areas are rated in nine categories: costs of living, job outlook, transportation, education, health care, crime, the arts, recreation, and climate. But don't go looking for statistics on Podunk--the focus remains on 354 metro areas, metro defined as a city or urbanized population of at least 50,000, located in a county with a total population of at least 100,000.

Places Rated is laced with intelligent and, unexpectedly, witty writing. The whole concept of judging places, the author notes, may seem the utmost of brass. "Yet everyone does it, privately. Some suspect that culture in Omaha or Des Moines or Saskatoon is a contradiction. Others surmise that daily life in Miami consists of surviving drug-trade shoot-outs..." Organized intelligently, Places Rated acknowledges that "livability" and "quality of life" are moving targets. Livable for whom? The artist who wants mountain vistas? The entrepreneur who wants low taxes and no red tape? With these limitations in mind, the book ends with a chapter titled "Putting It All Together," where the reader is invited to rate cities with a customized list of priorities. Arriving at your customized list, however, requires answering 72 questions that force you to decide once and for all what you value most--a low cost of living or good school districts or mild winters or some other criterion. And should you find that climate matters most, head for Santa Barbara, California, where winters and summers are mild and natural hazards are few, and stay away from Rochester, Minnesota, unless you're willing to endure 35 days when it's 0 degrees Fahrenheit, and 165 days of 32 degrees Fahrenheit, annually. --John Russell