Metro Life Score
Lake Havasu City-Kingman, AZ
Bottom-quartile composite Life Score — grade C-, 14th percentile of the national corpus.
- 40.8
- Life Score / 100
- C-
- Grade (curved)
- #331
- of 387 metros
- 14%
- composite percentile
Data updated August 2026
Verify: BEA · BLS · HUD · FBI · NCES · EPA · Census · Report a data issue · Data changelog
The verdict
Lake Havasu City-Kingman is bottom-quartile composite Life Score — #331 of 387 (40.8/100, grade C-, 14th percentile). Carried by environment at 82/100; held back most by wages at 14/100.
- 14th
- composite percentile
- #331
- of 387 peers
- 46th
- cost dimension percentile
- 14th
- wages dimension percentile
Life Score shape · LOWER · ENVIRO-LED · signature composite
Lake Havasu City-Kingman: bottom-third composite — where the drag concentrates
Lake Havasu City-Kingman sits in the bottom third of the metro corpus on composite (#331 of 387, 40.8/100, 14th percentile). Stamps LOWER · ENVIRO-LED; Wages at 14/100 is the main drag; Environment (82/100) keeps the floor. Cost/wage marks MID/LOW. According to PlainCompare's federal Life Score corpus ranking, Lake Havasu City-Kingman, AZ ranks #331 of 387 metros by composite Life Score (highest = #1) and #208 of 387 by cost-of-living dimension score (highest = #1). Methodology.
BEA RPP 94.1 (rent-RPP 79.8). BLS median salary $57,908, 51,040 jobs (Cashiers, General and Operations Managers, Retail Salespersons). HUD 2BR FMR $1,365/mo (studio $1,053).
FBI UCR (AZ): 429 violent, 1786 property/100K. NCES: 17.2:1 ratio, 25.9% charter. DOL infant childcare $11,301/yr. EPA: 13 Superfund sites (AZ).
Where Lake Havasu City-Kingman sits among all US metros
Composite Life Score vs the national field
41 14th percentile higher than 14% of 387 US metros
Each bar is a band; taller bars hold more US metros. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source PlainCompare composite of BEA, BLS, HUD, FBI, NCES, DOL, EPA data · August 2026
How the 40.8 is built
Lake Havasu City-Kingman's Life Score, decomposed
Dimension detail
How Lake Havasu City-Kingman scores, dimension by dimension
Score Breakdown
Dimension Scores
Key Data Points
Geography used: crime, schools, childcare, and environment cards above are AZ state-level when metro-specific feeds are unavailable, see the scope key at the top of this page.
Compare Lake Havasu City-Kingman With...
Ranking Context
Lake Havasu City-Kingman outranks 14% of U.S. metros.
| Rank | Metro | Score | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| #328 | Vineland, NJ | 41.0 | C- |
| #329 | Chico, CA | 41.1 | C- |
| #330 | Boulder, CO | 41.1 | C- |
| #331 | Lake Havasu City-Kingman, AZ | 40.8 | C- |
| #332 | Chattanooga, TN-GA | 40.8 | C- |
| #333 | Daphne-Fairhope-Foley, AL | 40.8 | C- |
| #334 | Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA | 40.8 | C- |
Quality vs. Affordability
Lake Havasu City-Kingman, AZ is bottom 15% lowest-quality nationally and also bottom 47% least affordable -- a rarer combination among its composite-quality peers, where overall rank and affordability rank usually diverge more than this.
AZ Metro Scores
Read with Lake Havasu City-Kingman
Nearest composite peers and cost poles for Lake Havasu City-Kingman (LOWER · ENVIRO-LED · MID/LOW), replacing the fixed Explore/Guides strip.
Chattanooga, TN-GA
ABS(composite) peer at 40.8 (Δ 0.0 vs this metro); higher Life Score · grade C- vs this page's LOWER · ENVIRO-LED · MID/LOW.
Daphne-Fairhope-Foley, AL
ABS(composite) peer at 40.8 (Δ 0.0 vs this metro); higher Life Score · grade C- vs this page's LOWER · ENVIRO-LED · MID/LOW.
Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA
ABS(composite) peer at 40.8 (Δ 0.0 vs this metro); higher Life Score · grade C- vs this page's LOWER · ENVIRO-LED · MID/LOW.
Yuba City, CA
ABS(composite) peer at 40.8 (Δ 0.0 vs this metro); higher Life Score · grade C- vs this page's LOWER · ENVIRO-LED · MID/LOW.
Hagerstown-Martinsburg, MD-WV (cost pole)
ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 46/100 (Δ 0); cost stamp MID vs this metro's MID.
Sheboygan, WI (cost pole)
ABS(cost_score) orthogonal peer at 47/100 (Δ 0); cost stamp MID vs this metro's MID.
Lake Havasu City-Kingman, AZ relocation guide
Stamp-branched guide for LOWER · ENVIRO-LED · MID/LOW - how to read federal Life Score inputs before a move.
Using Lake Havasu City-Kingman's bottom-third Life Score
Lake Havasu City-Kingman scores 40.8/100 overall, but Environment (81.9) and Wages (14.0) sit 67.9 points apart, so decide which of the two matters more to you before leaning on the total.
- Environment is the strongest of Lake Havasu City-Kingman's seven dimensions (weighted 10% in the composite); if it is your priority, this is where the metro earns its rank. See all seven dimensions
- Wages is the weakest (weighted 20% in the composite); if it is a dealbreaker, weigh it before the ranking does. Rank metros on the composite
- Sierra Vista is the nearest comparison this page can offer; put the two side by side on the same seven dimensions. Compare with Sierra Vista
A low composite is a weighted blend; individual dimensions can still be strong.