Study Ranks Portland, Maine, Among the Best Cities for Women

Hey 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 study.

Portland finished with a ranking of 30th. That's a very respectable number, considering the report included 182 cities nationwide. It was also the second-highest rated city in all of New England, only behind Burlington, VT, which led the region with a ranking of 12th.

Portland's actual score was a 61.22. 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 was respectable in both categories. It finished with a 48th ranking in economic and social well-being, and 40th 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 makes an effort to be inclusive and safe.

It was not as pretty for Lewiston, which found itself much further down the list. Maine's second largest city came in just 123rd, with an 82nd ranking in health and safety, and a rough 142nd ranking in economic and social well-being. It looks like Lewiston has something to strive for in 2025.

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 76.31. That was more than a full point over number two, Fremont, CA. The rest of the top 5 were Huntington, Irvine, and San Francisco. All three of those cities are also 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.