Looking for Your Ideal Community? Try This New Census App

Dwellr is a new app from the Census Bureau that matches the top 25 U.S. cities and towns to your lifestyle preferences. And unlike other recent federal technology rollouts, this one seems to work pretty well.

1 minute read

December 1, 2013, 11:00 AM PST

By Jonathan Nettler @nettsj


Sarah Goodyear takes dwellr, a sophisticated new app available for Apple or Android devices on a test ride. 

In addition to delivering a demographic profile of your current location, "the app will let you plug in key information about yourself and start looking for a city (or suburb) to live in. Indicate your preferred employment, whether you like the mountains or the coast, your favorite commuting mode, your marital status, and so on. Dwellr will generate a list of up to 25 communities that are a good match for you."

"I’ll give it high marks for matching me accurately," says Goodyear. "Dwellr pulled up my hometown of New York – the city I can't seem to tear myself away from – as my top choice, with Philadelphia and Boston rounding out the very short list (no wonder I feel like I don’t have many options)."

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