Leawood takes title of best small city in America for second year in a row; Shawnee and Lenexa fare well in rankings

For the second year in a row, the website Wallethub had named Leawood the best small city in America.

The website, which focuses on personal finance issues, released its annual rankings of cities with populations between 25,000 and 100,000 this week, and a variety of factors again put Leawood at the top of the mix.

Among the considerations that gave Leawood an edge among the 1,200 cities compared for the rankings were its exceptionally low levels of poverty, highly educated population and relatively affordable housing. Leawood scored second overall in the “affordability” categories, and finished among the top 100 in the “economic health” and “education and health” categories. It fared worst in the “quality of life” category, which measured things like commute time, entertainment options and access to fitness centers and parks, coming in at 722nd out of all the cities measured.