AARP continues to roll out new and updated resources to assist communities in becoming more age-friendly. The 2018 Livability Index is the latest tool that provides cities and towns with a “livability score” based on a variety of data points.

Similar to the MHAC Healthy Aging Data Reports and Community Profiles, the AARP Livability Index allows stakeholders to search by community and even ZIP codes to assess the assets and opportunities in a given city or town. Coupled with other data – like surveys, listening sessions, MHAC Community Profiles, etc. – this helps local coalitions gain critical insight in the assessment phase of the age-friendly continuous improvement cycle.

The Livability Index also comes accompanied with a report that goes deeper into the categories of data to rank communities across the country. AARP breaks down cities and towns by population size and created a “top ten” list of the most livable communities in each category. Massachusetts shows up in each bracket with Boston ranked second for “Large Communities” (500,000+), Cambridge ranked seventh for “Mid-Size Communities” (100,000 – 499,999), and Brookline – a WHO Age-Friendly Community – is eighth among “Small Communities” (25,000 – 99,999).