Report Suggests Portland, Maine, is One of the Best Cities for Women

Ladies, ladies, ladies, have I got some good news for you.

Maine's largest city is one of the best in America for women.

WalletHub.com, a personal finance website, recently published a report of the best cities for women. Portland and Lewiston were both included in the report.

Portland had a very solid ranking of 15. That's a heck of a number, considering the report included 182 cities nationwide. And Lewiston also finished with a respectable ranking of 66. This means both of Maine's cities finished in the top half of WalletHub's report. It's great to see that Maine's metropolitan areas are welcoming places for women.

Portland's actual score was a 66.15, while Lewiston scored a 58.10. The scoring was based on a 100-point system. Two major categories were looked at: women's economic & social well-being and women's health care & safety. These categories were broken down to 15 subcategories, making it as detailed as possible. You can read more about the methodology here.

Portland did well in both categories. It finished with a 27th ranking in economic and social well-being, and 42nd in health care and safety. While neither ranking truly "wows," the average vs other cities around it is solid. Plus, both rankings are in the top 50, which is a great sign for a city that tries to give off an impression of inclusivity and safety.

Lewiston was a little lower down the totem pole, with rankings of 49 in economic & social well-being and 86 in women's health care and safety. Sure, it would be nice to see these numbers be higher, but these are definite signs of improvement. When compared to other cities, these rankings are pretty darn good. Lewiston is just outside of the top third, which is great to see.

According to WalletHub, the best city for women is Columbia, Maryland (woo-hoo, my home state!). The Baltimore and DC suburb finished with a huge score of 73.96. That was more than a full point over number two, and the highest ranked New England city, South Burlington, Vermont. The rest of the top 5 were Irvine, Fremont, and Santa Clarita. All three of those cities are in California.

The American city with the lowest ranking goes to Jackson, Mississippi. I feel like Mississippi is on the bottom of a lot of these reports. I guess college football didn't play a factor in the rankings.