3 small cities in Nevada ranked as some of the worst in country

In a ranking of the best and worst of 1,268 small cities in the United States, three listed Nevada cities — Carson City, Sparks and Pahrump — finished outside of the top 1,000.

Carson City ranked 1,127th, while Sparks sat at 1,139th and Pahrump at 1,197th overall, thanks mostly in part to a poor state school system ranking, said WalletHub spokeswoman Jill Gonzalez. The study ranked Nevada 49th in “school system quality.”

The analysis studied everything from cost-of-living, household income, fitness centers per capita and millennial newcomers among 21 total factors in determining affordability, economic health, educational health and quality of life in U.S. cities with populations of 25,000 to 100,000.

“That includes everything from dropout rates, pupil to teacher ratio and test scores,” Gonzalez explained. “Also average SAT scores, ACT and even safety components like bullying incidents.”

The three “small” Nevada cities favored slightly better in affordability, with Pahrump listed as the 448th most affordable U.S. city, Sparks the 752nd and Carson City the 919th. Though the median annual household income was over $10,000 higher in Carson City ($59,600) and Sparks ($55,000) than Pahrump ($43,300), over 73 percent of Pahrump residents were homeowners, compared to about 58 percent in Carson City and Sparks.

The Silver State’s capital city ranked 226th nationwide for quality of life, thanks to an average commute time of only 17 minutes to work and about 34 restaurants, eight fitness centers, six bars and one museum per 10,000 residents, the study said.

Comparatively speaking, Pahrump, who ranked 1,208th for quality of life, had an average commute time of about 31 minutes to work and 21 restaurants, 2.8 fitness centers, three bars and 0.2 museums per 10,000 residents.

“Carson City just had the most variety of the three and what it was able to offer,” Gonzalez explained.

Carson City also had the highest number of millennial newcomers, with over four percent of its 54,000 residents falling between the ages of 18 to 34, and having moved there within the last five years.

Here’s the full list of WalletHub’s 2015’s “Best and Worst Small Cities in America.“

The company plans to publish its inaugural rankings for mid-size cities in early 2016, Gonzalez said.

Contact Chris Kudialis at ckudialis@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4593. Find him on Twitter: @kudialisrj