Some Americans live in a rootless world of chain stores and network TV. But bowling teams can have the same members for decades in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. In Greenville, Alabama, the churches are packed. And everybody knows your name in the neighborhood taverns of Johnstown, Pennsylvania.
A great home town is a place with deep roots. Great home towns have
well-attended churches, lively places to meet, handsome historic buildings and lots of locally owned businesses. Their residents are devoted to the Power of Place - and now, a new company has measured that power for every place in the United States.
The first ePodunk Home Towns Index reveals the hidden power of places like Sheboygan and Greenville. They head the list of the best home towns in the U.S., according to the Index released today. The Index also reveals the top home town in every state except Alaska and Hawaii.
ePodunk worked with four academic researchers to combine
11 statistics ranking every county in the lower 48 states. The numbers are designed to reveal the depth of a community's roots and the activity level of its citizens. The researchers examined the highest-ranking counties in detail, then chose representative towns for the final ranking.
The "roots" indicators in ePodunk's Home Towns Index include the proportion of each county's population who stayed in the same residence during two 5-year periods, and the proportion who were born in their current state of residence in 1980 and 1990. The "activity" indicators include church membership; the proportion of residents who belong to churches that have a strong civic mission; and the per-capita number of churches, civic associations, small manufacturing firms, buildings designated as historic,
and semi-public meeting places such as bars, cafes, and social halls.
The study was done by Brad Edmondson, ePodunk vice president for content; Michael Irwin and Troy Blanchard of Duquesne University; Charles Colbert of Louisiana State University; and Thomas Lyson of Cornell University.
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