Is it the most vain or the most good-looking? You decide. We hesitate to put "plastic surgery" and "attractive" in the same sentence, but if you're from the camp that believes there's a correlation between the two, Utah's largest city ranks for having lots of plastic or reconstructive surgeons -- six for every 100,000 people. Salt Lake City residents also spend the most on cosmetics, skin care and hair products each year -- about ten times the amount spent in cities of comparable size.
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No. 4: Chicago, Ill.
Chicago and its surrounding areas are no stranger to beautiful celebs, claiming beauty icon Raquel Welch and supermodels Cindy Crawford and Jason Shaw, along with actors Kiernan Shipka, Harrison Ford, John Cusack and Gloria Swanson. The hometown of the rather attractive First Lady also has a high number of beauty salons to boost its gorgeous factor. However, Chi-Town's beauty might not be long-lasting; it was also named by Forbes.com as America's most stressful city.
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No. 3: New York City, N.Y.
Aside from being the capital of the country's top modeling agencies, fashion magazines and beauty and fashion houses, New York City is also the birthplace or home of some of the most beautiful faces in existence, like actresses Scarlett Johansson, Lucy Liu, Olivia Wilde, Emmy Rossum and Natalie Portman. In addition, it's a travel hotspot for good-looking people from all over the world, adding international character and diversity to its list of most attractive qualities.
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No. 2: Los Angeles, Calif.
At least half of People's "Most Beautiful 2015" are either from or live in Los Angeles (probably because they all work in Hollywood). Those names include Sandra Bullock, Gabrielle Union, Ariana Grande, Vanessa Hudgens and Shay Mitchell. The City of Angels also made the Top 10 in almost every survey on the most beautiful people in the U.S. we consulted. On the flip side, L.A. hasn't been able to shake the reputation for being flaky, superficial and not so friendly. (Eh, guess you can't have it all!)
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No. 1: Miami, Fla.
Overwhelmingly, Miami was named No. 1 best-looking in every survey we looked at (no matter how un-scientific), which leads us to believe that unless there's a vast conspiracy at hand, there must be something to this tropical town. Miami, which has been home to Channing Tatum, Christy Turlington, Beyonce Knowles and Jennifer Lopez, was ranked No. 1 for attractive locals in 2014 by Travel + Leisure. The southern tourist hub is a main stop-over for beautiful models (who, let's not kid, seem to be bred in Florida, the Caribbean and South America). In addition, Miami is praised for having tons of fun nightlife, which boosts its overall hotness factor.
Of U.S. cities, which town is the fairest of them all? No, we're not talking waterfalls and flowers; we're talking people. And since beauty is pretty much in the eye of the beholder, we admit, it's hard to tell which town takes the title. There are so many qualities to consider: good looks (like having beautiful hair or clear skin), fit figures, brains, personality, charisma, sense of humor ... and everyone's preferences are so different. But just for fun, we put good looks way up there.
To get to the root of our little investigation of which city in the U.S. boasts the prettiest people, we scoured umpteen surveys and articles on the subject, then looked up the hometowns of People's "Most Beautiful 2015" (the authority, naturally). From Hawaii to Maine, we counted how many gorgeous celebs came from or gravitated to certain cities, then considered stats on fitness, diet and beauty-related industries -- if only to evaluate how obsessed the locals are with achieving some gold standard of "beauty." (We deserve an A for effort, don't you think?)
Now ... was our method scientific? Er, not completely. But that didn't stop us from obsessing over the data. Plus, we learned some fun things along the way, like where to go if you want to increase your chances of snagging a hot, brainy or even funny man. Or where not to go if you want to avoid losing your natural beauty to stress.
So, without further ado, check out the list of the prettiest cities to see if your hometown made the grade, and if not, start planning your next people-watching vacation!
