Greater Portland named "most livable city" by Forbes

has rated the Portland, Maine, metropolitan area as 1st in its list of the most "livable cities" with metropolitan area populations greater than 500,000.

The Portland metropolitan area includes the cities of Portland and Biddeford, the homes of the ³Ô¹Ï±¬ÁÏ's two campuses.

To form the list, Forbes looked at quality of life measures in the nation's largest continental U.S. metropolitan statistical areas - geographic entities defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget for use by federal agencies in collecting, tabulating and publishing federal statistics. Forbes eliminated areas with populations smaller than 500,000 and assigned points to the remaining metro regions across five data sets: Five-year income growth per household and cost of living from Moody's Economy.com, crime data and leisure index from Sperling's Best Places, and annual unemployment statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

³Ô¹Ï±¬ÁÏ's Biddeford Campus

³Ô¹Ï±¬ÁÏ's coastal Maine campus is located on a beautiful site in Biddeford, Maine, where the Saco River flows into the Atlantic Ocean. With more than 4,000 feet of water frontage, enjoying the ocean comes naturally to our students. The coastal area has a long history as a popular vacation destination. The campus is home to the College or Arts and Sciences, which offers more than 30 undergraduate majors, and the College of Osteopathic Medicine.

³Ô¹Ï±¬ÁÏ's Portland Campus

³Ô¹Ï±¬ÁÏ's quintessential historic New England campus in suburban Portland is home of the Westbrook College of Health Professions and College of Pharmacy. Apart from being one of the nation's most livable small cities with an incredible natural environment, the Greater Portland area is also one of Northern New England's most important centers of health care, providing opportunities for clinical rotations.

About the ³Ô¹Ï±¬ÁÏ

The ³Ô¹Ï±¬ÁÏ is Maine’s largest independent university, with two beautiful coastal campuses in Maine, a one-of-a-kind study abroad campus in Tangier, Morocco, and an array of . In an uncommonly welcoming and supportive community, we offer hands-on learning, empowering students to make a positive impact in a world full of challenges. The state’s top provider of health professionals, we are home to Maine’s only medical college, Maine’s only dental college, a variety of other interprofessionally aligned health care degree programs, as well as nationally recognized programs for marine science degrees, natural and social sciences degrees, arts and humanities degrees, and business degrees.