Capital City Index

From affordable living to public safety and access to leisure, where you live can shape how well you live. But when it comes to U.S. state capitals, not all are created equal.

To find out which capitals offer the best overall quality of life, Pink Storage created the 2025 Capital City Index. Our research team analyzed 14 key data points across all 50 state capitals, ranging from income and crime to coffee shops and walking trails, and assigned each city a score out of 100.

Some capitals excel at affordability, others shine in culture or safety, but which ones managed to balance it all?

Explore our full rankings below, discover how each capital scored, and see which ones came out on top.

Key Takeaways

• Best Overall Capital: Montpelier, Vermont thanks to excellent graduation rates, abundant walking trails, and low crime.
• Most Affordable Housing: Jackson, Mississippi, leading the way in house and rental cost scores.
• Best Capital for Eating Out: Harrisburg, PA takes the crown for eating out, earning a perfect score of 100 in our restaurant access per capita metric.
• Top City for Coffee Lovers: Juneau, AK ranked #1 for coffee shop availability based on population size making it the best capital for a caffeine-fuelled catch-up or cosy coffee date.
• Cleanest Air: Madison, Wisconsin, topping the air quality metric.
• Best Capital for Commuters: When it comes to getting around quickly, Pierre, SD leads the pack with the shortest average commute time — a major perk for work-life balance.

What Is the Capital City Index Score?

The Capital City Index Score is a comprehensive rating out of 100 that compares the quality of life in every U.S. state capital. It’s based on 14 key data points including income, housing affordability, crime rates, cost of living, safety perception, entertainment options, air quality, commute times, and graduation rates.

Each city received a score out of 100 in every category, with higher numbers reflecting better conditions. These were then averaged to create a final overall score with 100 being the best possible score and 0 the worst. The result is a fair, data-driven look at how liveable each state capital really is in 2025.

Top 10 Best State Capitals to Live In (2025)

1. Montpelier, VT— Score: 70.21
2. Juneau, AK— Score: 64.63
3. Helena, MT— Score: 62.37
4. Pierre, SD — Score: 61.04
5. Jefferson City, MO — Score: 58.99
6. Cheyenne, WY — Score: 58.75
7. Charleston, WV — Score: 58.09
8. Boise, ID — Score: 56.84
9. Santa Fe, NM — Score: 56.78
10. Annapolis, MD — Score: 56.69

10 Worst State Capitals to Live In (2025)

41. Denver, CO — Score: 42.15

42. Indianapolis, IN — Score: 40.98

43. Sacramento, CA — Score: 40.92

44. Nashville, TN — Score: 40.80

45. Providence, RI — Score: 39.99

46. Honolulu, HI — Score: 39.15

47. Phoenix, AZ — Score: 38.84

48. Boston, MA — Score: 34.05

49. Hartford, CT — Score: 32.77

50. Trenton, NJ — Score: 30.30

Full Rankings: Capital City Index 2025

Note on Data Presentation

To provide a clear and easy-to-understand comparison across all state capitals, this table displays normalized scores on a 0–100 scale rather than raw data. This approach allows for consistent evaluation across diverse metrics with varying units.

For those interested in the detailed raw data behind these scores, including original figures for income, crime rates, housing costs, and more, a full dataset is available upon request.

Methodology

To develop the Capital City Index, we assessed all 50 U.S. state capitals across 14 key lifestyle and economic categories that impact overall quality of life. These included:

• Median household income
• House prices
• Rent costs
• Cost of living
• Childcare costs
• Crime rates
• Perceived safety at night
• Things to do (attractions and activities)
• Number of restaurants
• Coffee shop access
• Trail and nature walk options
• Air quality (AQI)
• Average commute time
• High school graduation rates

Each data point was normalized to a 0–100 scale, where 100 represents the most favourable condition, and 0 the least favourable. For example, cities with the highest household income scored closer to 100, while those with the longest commute times or worst air quality scored closer to 0.

Some cities may receive a score of 0 in a category if their performance was the lowest among all capitals for that particular metric. For instance, a capital with the fewest coffee shops per capita, or the highest childcare costs, would score 0 after normalization. This approach ensures that each city is evaluated relative to its peers.

The 14 category scores were then averaged to calculate a final Capital City Index Score out of 100, providing a comprehensive and balanced view of how liveable each U.S. state capital is in 2025.

Data Sources

To compile this index, we used publicly available data and third-party platforms such as the U.S. Census Bureau for household income, population, and graduation rates; Zillow for median home values; Apartments.com for average rent and cost of living estimates; Care.com for childcare costs; City-Data for crime rates; Numbeo for perceived safety when walking alone at night; TripAdvisor for things to do, restaurants, and coffee shop counts; AllTrails for the number of walkable trails; and IQAir for air quality index (AQI) data.

Handling Missing Data

To ensure fairness and avoid penalizing cities with incomplete information:

If specific city-level data was missing, we substituted the state average, a demographically similar nearby city, or the average of the other capitals for that data point.

For example, “In cases where official crime data was unavailable, the national average for that crime type across all other capitals was used as a placeholder to maintain scoring consistency.”

Scoring Adjustments by Category

Air Quality: We used official AQI figures from IQAir and reversed the scoring scale, so cleaner air received higher scores (i.e., lower AQI = higher score out of 100).

Crime: We combined violent crime categories (murders, rapes, robberies, assaults) into a total crime per 100,000 residents and scored accordingly, with lower crime receiving a higher score.

Things to Do, Restaurants, Coffee Shops, and Trails were adjusted for population by calculating per 10,000 residents to ensure fairness between large and small cities.

Final Scoring

Each city’s final Capital City Index score is the average of its 14 normalized scores, rounded to two decimal places. Cities were then ranked from 1 to 50 based on this final score.

All data was collected in June 2025. Rankings may shift as new data becomes available.

Data Usage and Attribution

We welcome the use and sharing of this data. If you reference or republish any part of this Capital City Index, please provide proper attribution by linking directly to this page. Proper citation ensures transparency and supports the continued availability of this research.