These California Cities Were Just Named the Best Places to Live in America

Niche has released annual rankings of the best places to live in America for 2025. The website based its list on a multitude of factors, including cost of living; educational attainment; diversity; housing prices; job statistics; crime rates; walkability; and more.

These were the top 24 California cities on the list:

1. Irvine (No. 5)

2. Berkeley (No. 10)

3. Sunnyvale (No. 13)

4. Santa Clara (No. 15)

5. Torrance (No. 18)

6. San Francisco (No. 20)

7. Carlsbad (No. 21)

8. Pasadena (No. 28)

9. Thousand Oaks (No. 40)

10.  Burbank (No. 48)

11. San Diego (No. 49)

12.  Costa Mesa (No. 61)

13. Roseville (No. 75)

14. Glendale (No. 79)

15. San Jose (No. 105)

16. Temecula (No. 113)

17. Orange (No. 124)

18. Ventura (No. 144)

19. Long Beach (No. 147)

20. Oakland (No. 149)

21. Sacramento (No. 151)

22. Los Angeles (No. 160)

23.  Anaheim (No. 180)

24. Hayward (No. 186)

Naperville, Illinois took the top spot nationwide. It was followed by The Woodlans, Texas and Cambridge, Massachusetts.

To see the full list and methodology, click here.

List and data were compiled by niche and do not reflect statistics on all cities.