The Birmingham metro area is the largest in Alabama, but not all communities within it are equal when it comes to perception and quality of life.

In a recent look at data compiled by Niche, a service designed to help families determine which schools or colleges to enroll their kids in, Stacker made a list of the 25 best places to live in the Birmingham area.

The list ranks neighborhoods and communities based on cost of living, higher education rate, housing, public schools, diversity, and crime, among 15 total criteria.

Based on that data, the top five places to live in the Birmingham area are:

• Indian Springs Village
• Vestavia Hills
• Hoover
• Homewood
• Meadowbrook

In north Shelby County, Meadowbrook took the top spot with an overall Niche grade of A+, a public school grade of A, and an overall population of 8,939.

The other four cities in the top five each also had Niche grades of A+, with none having below an A for school system, although Homewood (#2), Hoover (#3) and Vestavia (#3) all had A+ grades for their schools.

Indian Springs, at 2,637 had the lowest population of the top 5, whereas Hoover at 92,401 had the highest.

At the other end of the spectrum – still in the top 25, were:

Mount Olive, Argo, Moody, Columbiana and Springville. All of them had Niche grades of either B or B+

If you’re interested in whether your community made the list, the entire ranking is here.