2025 Compare Cities Rankings:
Champaign, IL vs Merced, CA

#10 Best Green Cities

#33 2005 Best Places to Live

#44 Most Competitive Public Colleges

#58 America's Best and Worst Cities for Crime (Smallest Metro Areas)

#109 America's Most (and Least) Stressful Cities (117 Smallest Metro Areas)

#79 America's Best and Worst Cities for Crime (Mid-Size Metro Areas)

#289 Best Green Cities

#328 2005 Best Places to Live

Pros - close to Chicago, has Parkland community college and lots of places to eat. There is a train station downtown that is really good. Beautiful deciduous trees and  More

I wonderful city with great  More

Actually it's barely a nice place to live. The pros: Not terribly expensive - at one point the least expensive place to live in the country among modest sized  More

Merced is totally slept on - you want a little bit of everything CA has to offer, at a fraction of the price of other CA cities? Merced is the place to go. The town  More

Good place to live. More affordable than most of california. The city is growing and there is alot of business and growth here. Moved from the Bay area years ago and  More

Great place to live. Lots of progress and changes coming to the city. Great place to raise a family. UC Merced is expanding and businesses are investing. Downtown is  More