America's Best Small Towns in 2013

CNN Money has just released their annual rankings for "America's Best Small Towns" as part of their "Best Places to Live" series. Although there are many new ranking reports published every month, for every possible category from "Best Towns for Hippies" to "Healthiest Cities", this particular report is broader and more relevant to the majority of American's who are relocating. We've decided to blog about this report because, for the first time in a long time, the results are evenly spread out over the different regions of the US. Over the past several years the South and Southwest have dominated many of the 'Best' or 'Top' city and state ranking reports.

So what criteria is used to determine "America's Best Small Towns"? According to CNN Money, rankings are based on the strength of the economy, green space (e.g. parks), good schools and a strong sense of community. We've included the top 20 small towns below, for the full list of the top 50 small towns see the full report published by CNN Money