If you're looking for a top-notch place to raise children, a new study says you'll find just what you're looking for in Great Falls.

Today, Business Week magazine named Great Falls the best place under the Big Sky to raise kids.

Some of the criteria used in the selection include air quality, job growth, family income, and amenities such as museums, parks, and theaters.

Business Week says the biggest factors are affordability, school test scores, and safety.

Business Week pointed out a few things which led them to pick Great Falls, including the city's close proximity to the Missouri River and waterfalls; being home to Malmstrom Air Force Base; and a low cost of living.

Missoula and Billings are listed as runners up for Montana's top place to raise a family.

WEB EXTRA: additional information and results can be seen on the Business Week website article, including this explanation of how they determined the rankings.

As we did last year, we teamed up with OnBoard Informatics, a New York-based provider of real estate analysis, to select one town and two runners-up for each of the 50 states. The selections were limited to towns that have at least 45,000 residents and a median income of between $40,000 and $125,000.

We used the same criteria to rank the towns, but we shifted the weights slightly to come up with what we consider better results. The data we used included school performance, number of schools, household expenditures, crime rates, air quality, job growth, family income, museums, parks, theaters, other amenities, and diversity.