UW, Laramie Rank No. 9 on New ‘Best College Towns’ List

Add Laramie and the University of Wyoming to another list of the best college towns in America.

Business Insider places Wyoming's university city No. 9 on its new list of the "20 Best College Towns Where Life Revolves Around Their Universities," adding to a growing list of similar rankings for UW and Laramie.

"Business Insider looked at some of the cities and towns across America where students can thrive and compiled a list that best matches the loose definition of a college town," the financial and business news website says. "To do so, we used data from the Census Bureau's latest population estimates and from WalletHub's 2025 ranking of the best college towns. We then filtered out major cities, focusing instead on places where colleges and universities anchor the local economy and lifestyle."

On the 2025 WalletHub list, Laramie and UW ranked as the nation's fifth-best small college city.

"Located on Wyoming's high plains between mountain ranges, Laramie combines a historic Western downtown with the culture of the state's flagship university," Business Insider says. "The over 10,000 students at the University of Wyoming have easy access to hiking, mountain biking, climbing, skiing and other outdoor activities in the surrounding mountains and forests. The city's downtown adds restaurants, coffee shops, breweries and local businesses within a relatively compact area near campus, and the college culture also spans museums, performing arts and Wyoming Cowboys athletics."

On the new Business Insider list, UW and Laramie rank ahead of communities including Pullman, Wash.; Athens, Ga.; Cambridge, Mass.; East Lansing, Mich.; Chapel Hill, N.C.; College Station, Texas; Knoxville, Tenn.; and Provo, Utah.

The only university towns in the West that rank above UW and Laramie are Tempe, Ariz., and Berkeley, Calif. Ann Arbor, Mich., tops the list, and others in the top 10 include Charlottesville, Va.; Gainesville and Tallahassee, Fla.; Madison, Wis.; and West Lafayette, Ind.

In 2024, a website called TheTravel ranked Laramie No. 1 on its list of the "10 Best College Towns in America in 2024," after looking at factors that include campus offerings, vibrant downtown areas, a strong sense of community and outdoor recreation.

In April, the website RentCafe placed Laramie and UW No. 4 on its "Best College Towns" list for 2026.

Last month, the consumer website SmartAsset ranked UW No. 41 on its "America's Best Value Public Universities" list.

Earlier this year, TIME Magazine ranked UW as the 99th best U.S. university overall -- and the nation's No. 61 public university -- in its list of "The World's Top Universities of 2026."