Alexandria Ranks 5th In U.S. For College Graduates Starting Career

ALEXANDRIA, VA — Alexandria ranked as the 5th best mid-sized city in the U.S. for a young adult seeking to start a career after college, according to a new study.

The study was done by CoworkingCafe, an online platform used for finding and booking coworking spaces. Researchers at CoworkingCafe looked at job opportunities, income levels, cost of living, lifestyle amenities and other metrics in order to find the best U.S. cities for recent graduates to start their careers.

CoworkingCafe combined the scores into three main groups by area of interest: employment, financial and lifestyle. To reflect a fair comparison, CoworkingCafe segmented the cities into three population brackets: small, midsized and large.

Alexandria was ranked along with neighboring Arlington County, which was first in the nation. Alexandria's employment score was 3rd among the cities ranked, as its 11.3 percent share of jobs suitable for recent college graduates was the same was Arlington's.

Alexandria was also third for its share of the young population with a bachelor's degree. Overall, 58.7 percent of the population in Alexandria has a bachelor's degree.

In the lifestyle category, Alexandria was 11th among mid-sized cities with 467 leisure amenities and 7.8 coworking spaces per 100,000 residents.

In the financial category, the study noted the median graduate's income is $81,150 in Alexandria, and 70.4 percent have employer-based health care coverage. However, the high cost of living was noted — 11.3 percent above the national average.

Arlington led the pack among mid-sized cities "by a long shot," according to CoworkingCafe. Arlington was first in the employment category and first for the share of the young population with a bachelor's degree. It was second for the share of jobs suitable for recent college graduates — tied with Alexandria — and second for a 2 percent unemployment rate among young people.

Ranking ahead of Alexandria in the CoworkingCafe report were Arlington, Virginia in first; Sunnyvale, California in second; Durham, North Carolina, in third place and Overland Park, Kansas, in fourth place.

Santa Clara, California, ranked as the top small city for a recent graduate to start their career, according to the report. In its analysis of large cities, Washington, D.C., ranked as the fourth-best city for a recent graduate to start their career. Atlanta ranked as the top large city for a recent graduate.

See the full study on best cities for college graduates here.

Patch editor Mark Hand contributed to this report.