So which places were the most exciting, you might wonder. The folks at the Movoto Real Estate Blog were kind of wondering that too. So, they crunched some numbers and found out the most fun counties to call home. Get ready for a shocker, because I didn't see this South Jersey county coming!

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Congrats to Salem county for ranking number 19 in the top 20 most exciting counties in the country! How did Movoto come to this conclusion? To start, they made a list of all the cities in each county using the U.S. Census five year community survey. Then, they collected data for each city in the following criteria:

  • Nightlife per capita (bars, clubs, comedy, etc.)
  • Live music venues per capita
  • Active life options per capita (parks, outdoor activities, etc.)
  • Arts and Entertainment per capita (movie theaters, festivals, galleries, theaters, etc.)
  • Fast Food restaurants per capita (the fewer the better)
  • Percentage of restaurants that are not fast food (the higher the better)
  • Percentage of young residents ages 18 to 34 (the higher the better)
  • Population density (the higher the better)

Any place that did not have data to work with, or that they found spanned multiple counties, was left off of their list. From there, they added the data for all the cities of each county together, averaging the young resident percentage and population density. That left them with 2,814 counties with combined data for each.

Then, they ranked each place in each category, doing everything per capita from one to 2,814. Lastly, they averaged each county’s ranking into one Big Deal Score, and the place with the lowest number for that score became out most exciting county.

See the complete list here.

Tell us, do you agree with Salem County being named one of the most exciting? Leave your thoughts in the comment section below.

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