Riverside | World’s Best Cities

Riverside

They call it the City of Arts and Innovation, but Riverside on the outskirts of Los Angeles also lays claim to being the birthplace of the California citrus industry, a fact honored at the 248-acre California Citrus State Historic Park. Living up to its name, Riverside is also home to the Riverside Metropolitan Museum and Fox Performing Arts Center, a 1929 theatre built in Spanish Colonial Revival style in the heart of downtown. The city boasts one of the nation’s most ethnically diverse populations, ranked #10 in the Foreign-born Residents subcategory. Hispanic citizens make up 53% of the city’s population, while nearly 44% of citizens speak a non-English language. Like a reflection of the community around it, University of California, Riverside (ranked #26 in our University subcategory), is one of the nation’s most ethnically varied post secondary institutions. Riverside also performs well in our Place category (#14), which includes Safety (#12) and the second-best weather in the country—that is, only if you enjoy 277 days of sunshine annually.