The metro rating game: what can be learned from the recent migrants?

The authors examine nine indicators of quality of life in the 277 U.S. Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas (SMSAs) in terms of their impact on the decision to migrate. The factors considered were utilized in the 1985 publication "Places Rated Almanac" and include climate, housing, health care, crime, transportation, education, recreation, arts, and economics. "The purpose of this paper is both to analyze several alternative methods by which the nine 'Places Rated' indicators have been combined in previous studies, and to estimate a new system of weights for combining such indicators from a multivariate model of metropolitan out-migration." In this article, the authors examine out-migration of metropolitan households during the years 1975-1980. "Coefficient estimates from a multivariate model of out-migration form the basis for a ranking of metropolitan areas in the third section. Also included are comparisons among this and other studies of both the implicit weights employed against the 'Places Rated' scores...to derive both overall measures of urban life quality, and how such quality varies by city size."