The verdict is in: Providence, Rhode Island came in No. 65 on WalletHub's "Best & Worst Metro Areas for STEM Professionals" list for 2019.
Its overall rating (out of 100) put it behind Oklahoma City, Okla., and ahead of Youngstown, Ohio. It scored a 68 on "professional opportunities" and 83 on "quality of life," but came in at No. 29 for "STEM-friendliness," ahead of cities like Denver, Colo., Cincinnati, Ohio, and Richmond, Va.
Wallet Hub embarked on the study to better understand and quantify these burgeoning fields.
"Given their growing demand, STEM [science, technology, engineering and math] careers today provide some of the most lucrative employment opportunities," the report states. "They pay higher salaries and boast far fewer threats of unemployment compared with other types of jobs. According to the latest BLS statistics, medical scientists can expect the most graduate-level job openings at around 12,100 per year. Biochemists and biophysicists enjoy the highest median wage, at $91,190."
To discover how different areas scored, WalletHub considered the top 100 metros across the country and graded each on three different dimensions ("professional opportunities”, “STEM-friendliness” and “quality of life"), along with 17 additional metrics (such as "projected demand for STEM workers by 2020" to "per-capital job openings for STEM graduates"). Final rankings were determined via a weighted average across the initial three dimensions, with data culled from sources such as the U.S. Census Bureau, Council for Community and Economic Research and U.S. News and World Report.
Who ranked highest overall? Seattle, Wash., took the top spot, followed by Boston, Pittsburg, Austin and San Francisco.
Read the full rankings here.
