This Alabama city was just ranked one of America’s ‘most compassionate’

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June 19, 2014

MyLife.com, a website that says it “helps its 60 million members manage their online identity, connections and conversations, all in one place,” has just published a fascinating list of what they say are the “10 most compassionate cities” in the United States.

Here’s how they compiled the list:

We started with a list of the 100 most populous cities in the U.S. and ranked them from one to 100 in each of the following categories:

Percent of Income Donated to Charity – The more donated, the better. Data found on philanthropy.com.

Rehab Centers Per Capita – This included physical, mental, and addiction rehab centers. We wanted to highlight those who help others heal from whatever may be ailing them. Numbers from Yelp.

Free Clinics Per Capita – Providing care to those who cannot afford it is what being compassionate is all about. Data attained through freeclinicdirectory.org.

Homeless Shelters Per Capita – If people with no roof over their head have more opportunity to get one. Numbers from homelessshelterdirectory.org

Percentage of the Population that Works in Community and Social Service – These are the counselors, therapists and social workers of the community that devote their career and lives to helping others. Data through Bureau of Labor and Statistics.

After establishing a ranking for each of those categories, We assigned a score to each city for those categories as well. Once those were added up, We divided the sum into an average; the lower that average was the better.

So what did they find?

Atlanta topped the list, but Alabama’s largest city, Birmingham, was not far behind at number 4.

“Proving what Randy Newman already knew, this city showed themselves to be very compassionate as well,” MyLife’s Christian Neeser wrote. “Birmingham was the best of the top ten in the amount of money the donated to charity, giving back 10.9% of their collective salary. They were also able to rank in the top 40 in every other category, the only other city in the top ten besides Atlanta to do so.”

You can check out the rest of the list here.

Follow Cliff on Twitter @Cliff_Sims