How the Creative Economy is Making the Place Where You Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life

It’s a mantra of the age of globalization that where you live doesn’t matter: you can telecommute to your high-tech Silicon Valley job, a ski-slope in Idaho, a beach in Hawaii or a loft in Chicago; you can innovate from Shanghai or Bangalore.

According to Richard Florida, this is wrong. Place is not only important, it’s more important than ever.

Globalization is not flattening the world; on the contrary, the world is spiky. Place is becoming more relevant to the global economy and our individual lives. The choice of where to live, therefore, is not an arbitrary one. It is arguably the most important decision we make, as important as choosing a spouse or a career. In fact, place exerts powerful influence over the jobs and careers we have access to, the people meet and our “mating markets” and our ability to lead happy and fulfilled lives.

Who’s Your City provides the first ever-rankings of cities by life-stage, rating the best places for singles, young families and empty-nesters. And it grounds its new ideas and data to provide an essential guide for the more than 40 million Americans of who move each year on how to choose where to live, and what those choices mean for their lives, happiness and communities.

My place finder results:

(Not a huge surprise - I was born in The Golden State and am a progressive Democrat)

You should probably leave Fort Wayne, Indiana - final score:34 (below the average [50.6] score)

You should definitely consider moving to San Francisco - final score:57 (amongst the highest scores)

You should probably not move to Denver - final score:50 (below the average [50.6] score)

You should probably not move to Washington, DC -final score:50 (below the average [50.6] score)

You should definitely consider moving to Seattle -final score:62 (amongst the highest scores)