The 10 Best Places To Raise A Family In Washington For 2022

If you're looking for safe cities and neighborhoods, amazing schools, large green spaces, good food, and just overall good family friendly fun, you can stop your search: Washington is one of the most family friendly states in the USA.

Great family friendly Washington cities are around every corner in The Evergreen State. You can have your family at the beach in Kenmore, then to Lake Sammamish in Sammamish, and on to the foothills of The Cascade Range in Wenatchee all in the same day.

You're in luck parents, some of these family friendly cities have family friendly breweries for that end of the day family friendly fun. We recommend Manfish Brewing in Issaquah: they are both kid and dog friendly. In all seriousness, Washington has some of the best schools in the country. Blue Ribbon elementary schools, gold star high schools with focus in STEM, the Arts, and Aviation, and colleges like University of Washington and Washington State have been delivering the next generation to work at major Washington companies like Amazon, Microsoft, and Nordstrom. (This is especially nice for those parents who don't want their kids to fly the coop for school or work.)

Now don't count yourselves out of the mix, parents. There are plenty of jobs available in Washington for everyone--they have one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country. And with a $67,000/year household median, there's plenty of jobs to keep your family happy, healthy, and having fun. And speaking of healthy, Washington is the number one producer of organic fruits and vegetables, they have some of the freshest fish in the country, and their number one goal is sustainability Their thoughts on food and health in general, are very progressive. They are one of the top states for life expectancy.

So grab the minivan, put on your raincoats, and read on to see more information about the family friendly cities around Washington.

To narrow down the most family friendly cities in Washington, we looked at several factors: crime, education, family friendly activities and percent of households that currently have children. The cities also had to have a population of at least 10,000.

There were 76 said family friendly cities in the largest state in the Pacific Northwest. Without further adieu, the most family friendly city in Washington for 2022 is Camas.

So, if you care about your family living where crime is low, schools are awesome, and a healthy lifestyle is key, take a look at the list below. The Evergreen State is calling.

Check out some more reading about Washington and the best places for families in the country:

• Best Places To Live In Washington
• Cheapest Places To Live In Washington
• Best Cities To Raise A Family In America
• Best States To Raise A Family In America

Load More Cities

Methodology: How do you determine which place is best for families in Washington anyways?

To give you the places in Washington which are best for families, we have to look at a handful of metrics. Of course, we want to measure the type of people who live in each city, and make some assumptions about what's family-friendly and what isn't.

So we researched the internet for a database that contains all that information.

How we crunched the family friendly numbers for the Evergreen State

We threw a lot of criteria at this one in order to get the best, most complete results possible. Using U.S. Census data produced for the state of Washington, we looked at every single city in the state. We paid particular attention to:

• Crime (Both violent and property)
• Quality of local schools
• Distance to a major city without necessarily being in it
• % of households with children
• Family-friendly amenities nearby (museums, libraries and colleges)

We then gave each city a Family Score.

The higher the score, the better the city is for families. We also limited our results to cities with populations over 10,000 people. For Washington, that meant a total of 76 cities. You can download the data here.

Summary: The Best Places To Raise A Family In Washington

If you're looking for a breakdown of cities in Washington ranked by criteria that most would agree make a place a great spot for families, this is an accurate list.

Here's a look at the best cities for singles Washington according to the data:

1. Shelton
2. Fife
3. Olympia

For more Washington reading, check out:

• Most Dangerous Cities In Washington
• Best Places To Raise A Family In Washington
• Worst Places To Live In Washington

Where Are The Best Places For Families In Washington?