Top 15 States and Metros Americans would move to..

The Harris Poll® #63, August 11, 2005 California and New York City Most Popular Places People Would Choose to Live, According to Harris Poll on States and Cities in the U.S. Maybe it is the sandy beaches or perhaps the warm weather, but California, Florida and Hawaii are respectively the #1, #2, and #3 states that U.S. adults would choose to live in if they could live in any state in the country. And when it comes to AmericansÂ' choices for cities, while the West may again be overrepresented, the Â'Big AppleÂ', New York City, comes in #1 for the sixth consecutive time as the U.S. city people would choose to live in or near. These are some of the results of a nationwide Harris Poll of 2,339 U.S. adults conducted online by Harris Interactive® between July 12 and 18, 2005. The next most popular states in which people would like to live are Colorado (#4), New York (#5), Arizona (#6), Oregon (#7), Texas (#8), North Carolina (#9), and Tennessee (#10). Since Harris Interactive last asked this question in 2003, there has been surprisingly little change in the top 15 states. Oregon moves from #11 to #7, Virginia drops from #9 to #12 and Tennessee re-enters the top 15 after falling out of the top tier in 2003. One interesting thing to note is that eight of the 15 states are in the West and six of them are in the South. New York is the anomaly, representing the mid-Atlantic region, and there are no states from the Midwest or Northeast in the top 15. Favorite U.S. cities to live in Following New York CityÂ's lead as a top U.S. city people would choose to live in or near, the next four cities are all in the West – San Diego (#2), Las Vegas (#3), San Francisco (#4) and Seattle (#5). The Midwest makes the list with Chicago at #6 and rounding out the top 10 are Denver (#7), Honolulu (#8), Atlanta (#9) and Portland, Oregon (#10). Returning to the list of the 15 top cities this year are San Antonio at #14 and Nashville at #15. Nashville has not been in the top 15 since 2000. Interestingly, since Harris Interactive last asked the question in 2003, the cities from Florida that were on the top 15 list (Orlando, Tampa and Miami) have all dropped off, perhaps related to the 2004 devastation that occurred in Florida as a result of hurricane Ivan. TABLE 1 STATES WHERE MOST PEOPLE WOULD LIKE TO LIVE - APART FROM THEIR OWN STATE Question: "If you could live in any state in the country, except the state you live in now, what state would you choose to live in?" 1. California 2. Florida 3. Hawaii 4. Colorado 5. New York 6. Arizona 7. Oregon 8. Texas 9. North Carolina 10. Tennessee 11. Washington 12. Virginia 13. Georgia 14. Alaska 15. Montana Dropped Out of Top 15 This Year, Nevada (was #12) TABLE 2 U.S. CITIES PEOPLE WOULD MOST LIKE TO LIVE IN OR NEAR TO Question:"If you could live in or near any city in the country except the one you live in or nearest to now, which city would you choose?" 1. New York, NY 2. San Diego, CA 3. Las Vegas, NV 4. San Francisco, CA 5. Seattle, WA 6. Chicago, IL 7. Denver, CO 8. Honolulu, HI 9. Atlanta, GA 10. Portland, OR 11. Boston, MA 12. Los Angeles, CA 13. Phoenix, AZ 14. San Antonio, TX 15. Nashville, TN Cities which dropped out of the list this year, Orlando (was #12), Tampa & Miami (were tied at #15)>