Arlington is one of the top places in the country for having a positive work-life balance, according to a new set of rankings.
The website SmartAsset ranks Arlington No. 6 on its list, which quantifies “the best cities for work-life balance” in 2021. The top 3 were Madison, Wisconsin (1); Virginia Beach (2); and Minneapolis (3).
To compile the list, SmartAsset took into account factors like walkability, concentration of cultural establishments and restaurants, housing costs, hours worked per week, commute length, and unemployment rate.
Arlington scored well in many categories, but not as well in some others.
The county “has the highest labor force participation rate in this study, 78.0%,” SmartAsset noted. “Arlington also ranks second-lowest in the study for housing costs as a percentage of income – housing costs make up just 26.14% of income on average.”
“People do work a lot in the town, though,” the website added. “Arlington ranks dead last in both the metrics measuring how much people work – an average of 41.3 hours per week and 41.80 weeks per year.”
