{"id":522964,"date":"2025-06-27T09:47:33","date_gmt":"2025-06-27T13:47:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/northernvirginiamag.com\/?p=522964"},"modified":"2025-06-27T09:47:35","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T13:47:35","slug":"this-nova-county-ranks-best-in-the-u-s-for-new-families","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/northernvirginiamag.com\/news\/2025\/06\/27\/this-nova-county-ranks-best-in-the-u-s-for-new-families\/","title":{"rendered":"This NoVA County Ranks Best in the U.S. for New Families"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A new study ranks Fairfax County as the best in the nation for new families. <a href=\"https:\/\/smartasset.com\/data-studies\/best-places-new-families-2025\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The study<\/a> by financial technology company SmartAsset analyzed 830 U.S. counties based on affordability, <a href=\"https:\/\/northernvirginiamag.com\/things-to-do\/2024\/05\/22\/summer-entertainment-series-at-fairfax-county-parks-features-196-freebies\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">access to parks<\/a> and healthcare, childcare costs, and <a href=\"https:\/\/northernvirginiamag.com\/category\/family\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">family-friendly demographics.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The report noted that Fairfax County is a short drive west of Washington, DC. It &#8220;ranks well for childcare affordability, with costs for a family with two children averaging 24 percent of the median income, while housing averages 19.6 percent of the median income. Additionally, 96 percent of residents live within a half mile of a park, and there is one primary care doctor for every 898 residents, compared to a national median of 1,504.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The study noted that there are approximately 132,190 children under age 10 living in Fairfax County. This equates to about 11 percent on the population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Other U.S. counties ranked in the top 10 include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Wake County, North Carolina (No. 2)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Carver County, Minnesota (No.3)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Minnehaha County, South Dakota (No. 4)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Lake County, Illinois (No. 5)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Montgomery County, Maryland (No. 6)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>DuPage County, Illinois (No. 7)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Ector County, Texas (No. 8)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Midland County, Texas (No. 9)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Davis County, Utah (No. 10)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Feature image courtesy Fairfax County Park Authority<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The region was ranked No. 1 because of childcare affordability and access to parks and healthcare.","protected":false},"author":1016743,"featured_media":494077,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41098],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-522964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.2 (Yoast SEO v26.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Fairfax County Ranks Best in the Country for New Families<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A new study ranks Fairfax County as the best in the nation for new families based on affordability and access to parks and healthcare.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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