Maple Valley was named among the top 50 best places to raise kids in 2013 by Bloomberg Businessweek.

According to Businessweek, cities were chosen based on an evaluation done with Bloomberg Rankings which evaluated more than 3,200 areas in the country with populations between 5,000 and 50,000. The publication chose one city from each state.

The recognition came as a surprise to Maple Valley City Manager David Johnston.”We’re extremely proud to say the least,” he said.”I think it begs to tell the world what a special place it is to live.”

The Tahoma School District, as part of the distinction, received a GreatSchools city score of nine.”We’re pleased with it,” said Tahoma Spokesman Kevin Patterson. “It’s an acknowledgment that we’re doing good things for students, which we believe is true. It’s nice to see that reflected by other people. It kind of validates the collaboration we have with the city and the business community in trying to meet the needs of students in a variety of ways.”

Among the reasons it named Maple Valley included the Lake Wilderness Lodge, a winner of American Institute of Architecture and Washington State Design Awards, well as the Parks and Recreation Department.

Among the criteria evaluated were public school performance, the local job market, median income, housing costs and commute time.

The data come from GreatSchools.org, the FBI, the U.S. Census Bureau, and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The publication excluded places where the median family income exceeds $115,866, the lower limit for the wealthiest 20 percent of U.S. families.This is the second award Maple Valley has won in the past two years.

In 2011, Family Circle magazine named Maple Valley among the top ten places to raise a family.

Maple Valley was selected because it fit the survey criteria which analyzed 2,500 cities and towns with populations between 15,000 and 150,000.

Johnston said receiving the recognition from two distinctly different publications adds to the credibility.

“I think we have with these two we can really present this as a city of families and a great place to raise families,” Johnston said. “Other people are telling us this. I think it’s interesting that you had the consumer magazine do it, they tend to be more cooking and style and arts and crafts type, and then a year later we get recognized by a prominent business magazine.”