MINNEAPOLIS — Living with a disability can bring an assortment of challenges. Among them are healthcare costs, reliable transportation, lack of accessibility in and around buildings, and housing that allows people to live comfortably and safely.
When it comes to places that package the above needs, Minneapolis does a great job. In fact, personal finance website WalletHub says the Mini-Apple is the second-best city in America for people with disabilities to live.
To determine the rankings, WalletHub researchers compared 182 cities - including 150 with the largest populations in the U.S. - across three key dimensions: Economy, Health Care and Quality of Life.
Each of those three categories was then broken down into 33 metrics, which included comparisons like housing affordability, median earnings for those with disabilities, cost of a doctor visit, average monthly insurance premium, wheelchair-accessible restaurants per capita and share of accessible homes listed on Redfin.com.
Minneapolis finished second behind Scottsdale, Ariz., largely on health care. Researchers found the average monthly health insurance premium in Minneapolis is $337, the second-lowest in the country. The community also features the sixth-best public hospitals and the eighth-most hospitals per capita.
The city has also made strides with accessibility, ranking as the 22nd-best city for wheelchair-accessible grocery stores and arts and entertainment establishments per capita. Minneapolis also has the fifth-most wheelchair-accessible trails, which is important considering Minnesota's outdoor lifestyle and data indicates over 98% of residents live within half a mile of a park.
Finally, over 27% of homes listed for sale in Minneapolis are wheelchair-accessible, the 11th-most in the country.
“More than one in four U.S. adults live with a disability, so it’s extremely important for cities to prioritize becoming a safe, welcoming and affordable place for this demographic," explained WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo. "The best cities have highly-accessible public facilities and housing, high-quality medical care, and an affordable cost of living for people on a fixed income.”
Minnesota largely gets it, as proven by the fact that St. Paul finished fifth on the list of best cities for people with disabilities. Others in the top five include Columbus, Ohio (third) and St. Louis, Mo. (fourth). WalletHub's bottom 5 cities for the disabled are Juneau, Alaska; Montgomery, Ala.; Jackson, Miss.; Pearl City, Hawaii; and Gulfport, Miss.
For more on the study and how it was conducted, check out the WalletHub website.
