The MSA includes all of Boulder County. The annual rankings, released Tuesday, have Fort Collins/Loveland MSA in the 17th spot, down from fifth last year. Colorado Springs (No. 6) and Denver (No. 14) also cracked the top 20. U.S. News & World Report ranks the country’s 150 most populous metropolitan areas based on criteria such as quality of life, affordability, job prospects, net migration ratings and desirability. Data comes from the U.S. Census Bureau, the FBI, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Sharecare’s Community Well-Being Index and U.S. News’ own internal resources. “This year we’re looking at how the most populous metro areas in the U.S. fared for much of the coronavirus pandemic and seeing how far they’ll need to come to recover,” U.S. News real estate editor Devon Thorsby said in a prepared statement. “It shouldn’t be a surprise that many metro areas that saw unemployment levels skyrocket in 2020 fell in the rankings, but those with greater employment stability tended to fare well.”