Columbia in Maryland is named best US city for WOMEN to live in while Jackson, Mississippi, is worst

Columbia in Maryland has been named the best city in the US for women to live in, according to a new study.

The community 20 miles south of Baltimore has the highest median earnings for female workers, along with one of the highest scores for women's health care and safety.

Women in the area can expect to earn a median salary of $51, 526 when adjusted for the cost of living, three times that of women in Anaheim, California, where median salaries are lowest.

The city also was ranked sixth best for women's safety and access to healthcare, based on metrics such as the quality of women's hospitals and female suicide rates. 

Professors Diane F Halpern and Laurie Finke compared data from 182 cities across 15 key indicators of living standards for women to determine the results. Overall, they scored the city 73.96 out of a possible 100.

Researchers ranked criteria around women's economic and social wellbeing alongside health data to rank 182 US cities for the best and worst places for women to live

Columbia, Maryland, came out on top as the best place for women to live due to its higher than average median salary and the quality of female healthcare and access

Women make up almost 52 per cent of the population of Columbia and account for around 54,000 of its residents according to the most recent census. 

After Columbia, South Burlington, VT was the next best city for women, followed by three Californian cities: Irvine, Fremont and Santa Clarita.

Meanwhile, Jackson in Mississippi was branded the worst place for women to live with a score of just 26.8, according to Wallethub.

This was preceded by Gulfport around 160 miles away, then Brownsville in Texas, Huntington, West Virginia, and Shreveport, Louisiana.

The researchers analyzed standards across women's 'economic and social wellbeing' and 'health care and safety' for 150 of the most populated US cities including at least two of the most populated cities in each state.

Charleston, South Carolina was ranked best for women's economic and social wellbeing, while Yonkers, New York, came out top for female health care and safety.

Unemployment rates are lowest in Portland, Maine, while in Detroit, Michigan, where rates are highest they were seven times more.

Pearl City in Hawaii has the lowest levels of female poverty, but highest in Huntington where it is around seven times more. Life expectancy for women in the West Virginia city is also lowest for the whole country.

By comparison women in San Jose, California, can expect to live the longest. Other factors compared included the number of female-owned businesses, the number of of active and obese women and the female uninsured rate.