The best places in Florida to raise a family; Clay and St. Johns Counties make the top 10

CLAY COUNTY, Fla. — Are you looking for the best place to raise a family? Have your sights set on Florida but aren’t familiar with which places have the best schools and lowest crime rates?

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The website FloridaRentals.com, a vacation rental marketplace, has released a list of Florida counties ranked best to raise a family. Eleven different factors were used to create the rankings. Some of these included the cost of living, childcare cost, median house price, and crime index.

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“These were then ranked to determine which Florida counties are the best for raising a family; the latest available data was gathered from sources such as the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Census,” FloridaRentals.com said.

Okaloosa ranked as the best Florida county to raise a family according to the data.

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Santa Rosa took second place, while our neighbor to the south, Alachua County, came in at third.

In our local area, Clay County came in at 5th while St. Johns County wasn’t far behind in 7th place. Duval placed 15th out of the 67 total counties in Florida.

How did Clay County make it to the top 5?

“Ranking fifth is Clay, with an index score of 65.50,” FloridaRentals.com said. “This family-friendly county has the highest percentage of households with at least one person under the age of 18 -- 33.4 percent to be precise. One aspect that may have factored into people’s decision to raise a family here is Clay’s cost of living index score of 6.69, with 10 being the highest and best possible score.”

Read: Jacksonville ranked No. 16 best place to live in the country by U.S. News & World Report

As for St. Johns County, it ranked top honors with 95.3 percent of its residents earning their high school diploma or higher. This factored into the overall index score of 61.89, giving it 7th place.

“This index provides a clear picture of the most ideal counties to raise a family, and it will be interesting to see whether the study boosts the number of people with children choosing to move to these counties,” a spokesperson for FloridaRentals.com said about the findings. “Alternatively, it will be fascinating to see if the birth rates in these counties increase in the future, given their suitability to families.”

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To read more on what county placed where in the list and how FloridaRentals.com factored in the data from different sources click here to read more.

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