Three of the best places to live in the country can be found in Fairfax County, according to one recently released ranking.
U.S. News and World Report included Burke, Reston and Centreville on its 2025-2026 list of the Top 250 Best Places to Live in the U.S., with the first two taking first and second place, respectively, among Virginia localities.
Published on May 19, the ranking was based on “internal resources” as well as data from the company Applied Geographic Solutions, which operates a database with demographic and marketing information from private and government sources, U.S. News says in a breakdown of its methodology.
The media outlet considered factors such as quality of life, value, desirability, job market and net migration when calculating its ranking. Quality of life, which includes education, health care, the environment and infrastructure, carried the most weight, followed by value, based on a February survey that asked the public to share which of the factors they believe is most important when determining where to live.
“To make the top of the list, a place had to have good value, be a desirable place to live, have a strong job market and a high quality of life,” U.S. News said.
Coming in at no. 100 nationally but in first place among the Best Places to Live in Virginia, Burke scored a 6.2 out of 10; for comparison, the top place to live in the U.S. — Johns Creek, Georgia, a city northeast of Atlanta — got 7 out of 10.
Burke was boosted by its job market, with a higher median household income ($180,103) and a lower unemployment rate (4.3%) than the national average ($79,466 and 4.5%), though those figures don’t reflect the emerging impacts of federal worker cuts.
Unsurprisingly, Burke got dragged down by its cost of living, scoring a paltry 0.6 out of 10 on that index. Its median home value of $660,984 easily exceeded the national average of $370,489.
Reston, which came in at no. 121 nationally and no. 2 in Virginia, landed an even lower cost of living score of 0.5. Though its median home value ($637,868) is lower than Burke’s, the planned community also has a lower median income ($144,411), according to U.S. News.
On the positive side, Reston has a low unemployment rate (3.1%), and its population is relatively evenly distributed in terms of age and marital status, suggesting it’s friendly to a variety of people, from young, single professionals to families with kids and seniors.
Centreville landed the no. 165 spot on the U.S. list and the seventh spot on the Virginia rankings, coming behind Arlington, Virginia Beach, Chesapeake and Leesburg in addition to the two other Fairfax County communities. Its job market was rated as healthier than other similarly sized areas, with a median income of $138,476 and an unemployment rate of 3.1%, but with a median home value of $582,314, housing costs remain a challenge.
U.S. News named a total of 23 best places to live in Virginia, the top 11 of which made the national ranking.