Forbes Magazine evaluated towns on quality of life, business environment and labor force
#8 – Rockville, MD
Population: 54,274
Location: Another northeast Washington, D.C., suburb, Rockville is 25 miles from Capitol Hill.
Median income: $88,759
Strongest categories: Its per capita venture capital investment of $3,130 is the highest of any town outside California, which isn’t surprising when you consider that the 0.0018 patents per capita ranking places it firmly in the top five by that measure.
#13 – North Potomac, MD
Population: 29,909
Location: A northwest D.C., suburb, North Potomac is slightly farther out than more familiar suburbs like
Chevy Chase and Bethesda.
Median income: $142,455
Strongest categories: North Potomac differs from Potomac because it has a slightly higher share of people with a bachelor’s degree or higher and of BLS-defined highly skilled workers, which represent 70% of the labor pool.
#17 – Germantown, MD
Population: 61,606
Location: A northwest suburb of Washington, D.C.
Median income: $78,164
Strongest categories:Germantown performs very well in our venture capital ranking, hauling in $2,110 per person. Its bucolic nature does well to attract highly skilled professionals, including those from other countries (who make up 10% of the labor force).
#20 – Silver Spring, MD
Population: 77,805
Location: An immediate D.C., suburb, Silver Spring is the last stop on the D.C., red subway line.
Median income: $63,329
Strongest categories:BLS-defined highly skilled workers with backgrounds in technology, mathematics or engineering make up 23% of the labor force, and they often filter through well performing start-ups, which garnish $2,712 venture capital dollars per capita, one of the highest rates on our list.
#23 – Potomac, MD
Population: 45,993
Location: A northwest D.C., suburb, Potomac is slightly farther out than more familiar ‘burbs like Chevy Chase and Bethesda.
Median income: $170,029
Strongest categories: Potomac’s got a highly educated, albeit older, workforce: 67% of those in the labor pool qualify as white collar, professional workers based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics definitions. This places them in the top 10 by that measure.
To evaluate each town – defined as every city, town, borough or Census-designated-place under 100,000 people – Forbes looked at the following factors: median income; average commute; distance to highways and airports; per capita venture capital funding; per capita number of small businesses; sole-proprietorships and start-ups; the percentage of the population with bachelor’s degrees or higher; the share of BLS-defined professional-level workers; the percentage of young and educated people, or those ages 25-34 with a bachelor’s degree or higher; the percentage of foreign-born residents with a bachelor’s degree or higher; and the number of restaurants, bars, museums and cultural institutions per capita. Data was provided by ZoomProspector.com, a San Francisco-based consulting firm specializing in corporate relocation.
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