Three central Indiana cities rank in top 10 best small cities in U.S.

INDIANAPOLIS — Three central Indiana cities have made the list of the “Best Small Cities in America”.

Carmel, Zionsville and Westfield each placed in the top ten of the study from WalletHub that included more than 1,300 cities throughout the country.

While Lancaster, Pennsylvania ranked as the best small city in the United States, central Indiana tallied spots No. 2, No. 7 and No. 10.

Cities with populations between 25,000 to 100,00 qualified.

Cities were graded in five areas: affordability, economic health, education & health, quality of life, and safety.

Carmel ranked as the second-best small city. Among the more than 1,300 cities, Carmel ranked in the top 40 cities in affordability, economic health and safety.

Zionsville was ranked as the seventh best small city in the U.S. While Zionsville only ranked in the top 100 small cities in one key area, the mark was very high.

The Boone County city ranked No. 3 in the country is affordability. They were topped only by Wildwood, Missouri and Madison, Mississippi in affordability.

Zionsville was the highest-ranked Indiana city for education, ranking 177^th.

Westfield rounded out the top ten.

Westfield thrived in grading for affordability and safety. They ranked in the top 41 spots in both.

In total, 34 Indiana cities were listed.

Plainfield, Fishers and Noblesville each also placed in the 90^th percentile or better among cities in the U.S.

Gary was the lowest ranked city in Indiana, ranking 20^th worst. Elkhart, Terre Haute, East Chicago, Hammond, Michigan City and Anderson all ranked in the 10^th percentile or worse.

Besemer, Alabama was ranked the worst small city in the country.