Davenport is No. 43 on the annual list of 150 best cities in the nation, cracking the top 50 and placing ahead of Des Moines which dropped to No. 55 in the U.S. News & World Report 2025-2026 Best Places to Live rankings.
The Quad Cities’ largest city also came in as the nation’s 63rd best place to retire and was No. 5 on U.S. News’ Cheapest Places to Live list created by that digital business news media company that reaches about 40 million readers annually.
Davenport was singled out, in part, for its lower than the national average cost of living and housing as compared to its median household income.
In the web post detailing Davenport’s ranking, U.S. News also stressed the multiple advantages created by that city’s proximity to Bettendorf, Rock Island, Moline and East Moline. It also spotlighted venues, amenities and cultural and sporting attractions in the metropolitan area.
“Davenport, the third-largest city in Iowa, is part of the Quad Cities area that spans two states – Iowa and Illinois – over the Mississippi River. Despite its name, the Quad Cities are actually composed of five cities: Davenport and Bettendorf, Iowa; and Rock Island, Moline and East Moline, Illinois,” U.S. News reported.
“Each is distinct, but with downtowns clustered along the same riverfront and collaborations across business, service and the arts, the area offers many of the amenities one might expect from one larger city,” it said.
In addition, the ranking said “There’s a bustling brewery scene, casinos and river cruises here. And residents of Davenport and its neighboring cities are three hours from Chicago and two and a half hours from Des Moines, Iowa.”
More in the works
Among those celebrating Davenport’s top 50 ranking is Mayor Mike Matson. “Our downtown is thriving, our neighborhoods are growing, and even more great things are in the works for our entire region,” Mr. Matson said late last month in a city website post.
“We want more people to discover all there is to love about living in the Quad Cities,” he added.
For its 2025-2026 Best Places to Live rankings first released last month, U.S. News & World Report selected 150 major cities to review. To make the list, each place had to have good value, be a desirable place to live, have a strong job market and a high quality of life.
Using that criteria, the media company awarded Naples, Florida, the No. 1 spot. In addition to Des Moines, other midwestern cities nearby the Quad Cities who also made the U.S. News Best Places list were the Illinois towns of Peoria (No. 62), Rockford (No. 105) and Chicago (119).
In the U.S. News rankings, Davenport scored high for low cost of living as well as the Iowa and Illinois home prices that are lower than the national average. According to the U.S. News, housing costs for Davenport alone were $170,262 compared to the national average of $281,900.
The Quad Cities also won high marks for a “thriving theater scene” and venues including Moline’s Black Box Theatre, Davenport’s restored Adler Theatre, the Vibrant Arena at the Mark in Moline and East Moline’s Rust Belt.
That matters to the region, said Lindsey Row, Visit QC’s director of public relations & communications. “At Visit Quad Cities, our mission is to enhance the quality of life in our region while fostering economic development through tourism,” she said.
“This recognition highlights the strength of our bi-state region, where shared amenities, world-class attractions, and authentic experiences come together to create a destination that’s as welcoming to visitors as it is to residents,” Ms. Row added.
Lots to do in QC
U.S. News also highlighted Ballet Quad Cities, the Figge Art Museum, the Putnam Museum & Science Center, and local events such as jazz and blues festivals and county fairs as well as signature and major Quad Cities events including the John Deere Classic PGA Tour event and the Quad-City Times Bix 7. It also touted the region’s minor league hockey, and indoor football teams and minor league’ baseball’s Quad Cities River Bandits, who play at the nationally award-winning Modern Woodmen Park.
The report also called attention to commute times that are at least nine minutes less than the national average and both Iowa and Illinois boast average home prices lower than the national average. In addition, U.S. News said, Davenport, Moline and Rock Island also have average home prices lower than the state averages.
The ranking did warn, however, that ”while property prices are good, both states have high taxes.”
Another challenge impacting the U.S. News rankings was Davenport’s crime rate, which the report said was higher than the national average in 2022, according to FBI crime reporting statistics. The report also cited Davenport public schools 4.4 out of 10 score in the “College Readiness Index” used by U.S. News to create its Best High Schools rankings.
The publisher also did not neglect to single out the region’s Midwest weather.
“Winters are cold and snowy, and summers are warm and humid. The Mississippi River floods parts of Davenport almost every spring…,” the ranking said.
The Davenport ranking also noted that Scott County “has an aging population, but is seeing steady growth” while Bettendorf “attracts a lot of families.”
Criteria for rankings
Data compiled from those and other areas’ advantages and challenges were taken into consideration in creating the top 150 cities list. Overall, the report used these four indices to determine the rankings:
- Quality of Life Index: 32% – It measured crime rates, quality of education, well-being, commute time, quality and availability of health care, air quality and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) National Risk Index to determine a city’s risk to natural hazards and community risk factors, including social vulnerability and community resilience.
- Value Index: 27% – How comfortably the average resident of each city can afford to live within their means.
- Desirability Index: 19% – To get this number, U.S. News polled about 3,500 people across the country via SurveyMonkey in February of 2024 to find out in which of the ranked cities they would most like to live. In addition, it also looked at net migration, and weather.
- Job Market Index: 22% – U.S. News assessed the 12-month unemployment rate to determine how likely residents are to get a job and their earning potential as measured by each city’s Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics Median Household Income numbers.
To read about the U.S. News & World Report’s methodology for ranking the best places to live and retire go here.
