Chesterfield placed fifth in Livability’s inaugural Best Small Cities in America ranking, scoring 815 out of 1,000 and tying with Dublin, Ohio. It was the only Missouri community on the list, according to FOX 2. The new ranking covers communities with populations of 15,000 to 75,000 and is separate from Livability’s annual list of larger cities, the company said in its announcement.
Livability says it developed the list with Applied Geographic Solutions using nearly 100 data points across eight categories, including economy, housing and cost of living, amenities, transportation, environment, safety, education and health. Those categories make the score a broad composite, rather than a ranking of any single feature. FOX 2 reported that Livability highlighted Chesterfield’s job market, shopping and dining, parks and recreation, and schools, and that the city scored well in health, safety and education.
FOX 2 also reported a Chesterfield median home value of $441,346 and median household income of $143,299. Livability’s published methodology allows communities with median home values of $500,000 or less to qualify for its primary rankings. That cutoff is an eligibility rule; by itself, it does not show whether housing is affordable for particular households.
The city’s commercial landscape has a longer history than the new ranking. A 2013 STLPR account reported that, two decades after the 1993 flood, farmland submerged in Chesterfield Valley had become the site of office buildings and retail developments. That provides historical context for the area’s commerce, but it does not establish why Livability assigned Chesterfield its score or how the city’s development affected the ranking.
