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NEAREST BIG CITY


The big city brings noise, pollution and congestion but also offers services and amenities that can't be found in the smaller city or town.

Access and choice to arts, education, entertainment, airport and medical care facilities is generally better in a big city, so it is important to be near the city to take advantage as needed, but not too near.

Fort Collins, Colorado and Fond du Lac, Wisconsin rank highest of our 99 top retirement cities in this category because of their proximity to large metropolitan centers. For ranking purposes, a large city less than 60 miles away is too near, and greater than 90 miles away is too far.


Nearest Big City ( > 200,000 population)
2010 Census
               
              GPTR
City/Town < 60 miles away > 60 and < 90 miles away > 90 miles away Rank
Fort Collins, CO   64 Denver     1
  75 Aurora      
Fond du Lac, WI     66 Milwaukee     2
      73 Madison      
Monterey, CA   75 San Jose 113 Oakland 3
  89 Fremont      
Rochester, MN     77 St Paul     4
      83 Minneapolis      
Olympia, WA   60 Seattle     5
South Lake Tahoe, CA     61 Reno 100 Sacramento 6
Santa Fe, NM   64 Albuquerque     7
Ocean City, NJ     65 Philadelphia 120 Newark 8
Bowling Green, KY   66 Nashville 115 Louisville 9
Athens, GA     70 Atlanta 99 Augusta 10
Newport, RI   71 Boston     11
Melbourne, FL     72 Orlando     12
Concord, NH   72 Boston     12
Gainesville, FL     72 Jacksonville 113 Orlando 12
Yarmouth, Cape Cod, MA   74 Boston     15
Hanover, PA 55 Baltimore 87 Washington D.C. 95 Arlington 16
Port Townsend, WA 55 Seattle 119 Vancouver, Canada     16
Palm Springs, CA 54 San Bernardino 94 Irvine 109 Los Angeles 18
          112 Glendale  
Bellingham, WA 51 Vancouver, Canada 89 Seattle     19
Bloomington, IN 51 Indianapolis     91 Louisville 19
Distance to the nearest Large City of  > 200,000 population is in approximate driving miles.
GPTR Rank - Cities with the best ranks are those far enough away to "escape" the city yet not so far as to
                       make it difficult to take advantage of entertainment, health care, travel and other
                       amenities of the city.

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