Though back in May finance news site WalletHub ranked Augusta 173—among the “worst”—in its Best & Worst Places to Raise a Family list, Evans has placed second of five on a list of the best cities to move to in Georgia.
Homefront, a section of USA Today produced in partnership with finance media company Home Solutions, recently published an article on the findings of a 2024 study ranking 32 cities in the Peach State.
Using 16 metrics, ranging from the number of violent property crimes, the number of primary care providers, to school district ratings, the study assessed data to grade the Georgia cities in five categories: life expectancy, median income, observed rent, observed home value and unemployment rate.
Ranked just below Kennesaw and above Albany in the list, Evans has a median household income of $125,325, according to a five-year American Community Survey completed in 2022, compared to the $46,313 found for the City of Augusta in the same survey. According to data collected in 2022 by the Local Area Unemployment Statistics (LAUS) program of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, only 2.8% of the eligible working population in Columbia County is unemployed.
The National Center for Health Statistic found Columbia County residents had a life expectancy of 79. This number is rounded up to 80 for Evans in USA Today’s list.
Augusta ranked 20 on the same list, with an average life expectancy of 73, and an unemployment rate of 4.2%. Both ranked above Atlanta, at 23, and Savannah, at 27.
Skyler Q. Andrews is a staff reporter for The Augusta Press. Reach him at skyler@theaugustapress.com.
