2016’s Best & Worst Cities for People with Disabilities – WalletHub Study

With October being Disability Employment Awareness Month, the unemployment rate for persons with a disability rising and 2015 disability benefits barely enough to keep a beneficiary above 2014 poverty levels, the personal-finance website WalletHub conducted an in-depth analysis of 2016’s Best & Worst Cities for People with Disabilities.

In order to ease the process of finding the best place to live while managing a disability, WalletHub’s analysts compared the 150 most populated U.S. cities across 25 key metrics. They range from “number of physicians per capita” to “rate of employed people with disabilities” to “park accessibility.”
 

Best Cities for People with Disabilities			Worst Cities for People with Disabilities
1	Overland Park, KS		141	Winston-Salem, NC
2	Scottsdale, AZ		142	Norfolk, VA
3	Lincoln, NE		143	Jersey City, NJ
4	Gilbert, AZ		144	Newark, NJ
5	Peoria, AZ		145	Memphis, TN
6	Huntington Beach, CA		146	Buffalo, NY
7	Honolulu, HI		147	Rochester, NY
8	Irvine, CA		148	Providence, RI
9	Oklahoma City, OK		149	Anchorage, AK
10	Chandler, AZ		150	Worcester, MA

Best vs. Worst

• Cleveland has the highest percentage of persons with disabilities living in the area, 20.7 percent, which is 3.6 times higher than in Aurora, Ill., the city with the lowest, 5.7 percent.
   
• Pembroke Pines, Fla., has the lowest percentage of persons with disabilities living below poverty level, 6.5 percent, which is 6.8 times lower than in Rochester, N.Y., the city with the highest, 44.1 percent.
   
• Jacksonville, Fla., has the lowest cost of a doctor visit, $68, which is 2.7 times lower than in Milwaukee, the city with the highest, $182.
   
• Laredo, Texas, has the lowest annual cost of in-home services, $20,592, which is 3.3 times lower than in San Francisco, Oakland, and Fremont, Calif., the cities with the highest, $68,640.
   
• New York has the highest percentage of the population with walkable park access, 94.9 percent, which is four times higher than in Charlotte, N.C., the city with the lowest, 26.0 percent.
   
• Overland Park, Kan., has the highest median earnings for people with disabilities, $46,345, which is four times higher than in Grand Rapids, Mich., the city with the lowest, $11,523.

To view the full report and your city’s ranking, please visit: https://wallethub.com/edu/best-worst-cities-for-people-with-disabilities/7164/

SOURCE: WalletHub