Chicken-Fried News: Youth movement

Holy emoji, y’all! Oklahoma City has (apparently) been named a top-notch destination for the nation’s millennials.

The obviously infallible data crunchers at ApartmentList.com recently listed the OKC metro area as its eighth best U.S. locale for the generation born between the early to mid-1980s and 2000s. Our city earned an “A+” millennial grade from the site.

ApartmentList’s criteria included the availability of jobs, a city’s affordability and its “livability” — including data on weather, access to parks and nightlife, “opportunities to date and make friends” and crime rate.

Oklahoma City’s best score was, unsurprisingly, in affordability, earning a 90 out of a possible 100. Our livability, however, only earned a 34, the lowest of the other cities to make the top 10.

The top-ranked city? Can you guess? No, it’s not San Francisco or Dallas. Try Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Provo, Utah; Madison, Wisconsin; San Antonio, Texas; and Columbus, Ohio, round out the rest of the top five.

Ah, yes. Nothing excites tech-loving, craft-beer sipping millennials more than Provo, Utah, the third-largest city in a state with alcohol laws even more stringent than our own.

We here at Chicken-Fried News are a little suspect of ApartmentList’s criteria for this ranking. No consideration was given for avocados per square mile or greatest number of restaurant options that aren’t Applebee’s or Olive Garden.

For those curious, the five lowest-ranked metro areas for millennials were Riverside, California; Bridgeport, Connecticut; Orlando, Florida; Northport, Florida; and Sacramento, California.

On a serious note, Oklahoma and OKC have long been fearful of potential “brain drain” as its youngest, college-educated generations threaten to take off for states with higher wages or more progressive attitudes. Seeing OKC listed as a place where millennials can actually go to prosper is a refreshing change of pace.

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