Federal Way has been ranked the No. 5 most ethnically diverse small city, according to a new study by WalletHub.com.

On Feb. 22, the personal-finance website released its report on the Most and Least Ethnically Diverse Cities for 2023.

“The main benefits of living in an ethnically diverse city include interpersonal contact with others whose identities, beliefs, and behavior differ from your own,” wrote Dr. Tony N. Brown, a professor of sociology at Rice University in Texas, in the study. “To sharpen that point, the only way to expand one’s worldview is to see the world from someone else’s perspective, especially when the other person is not like you.”

To identify the most ethnically diverse places in America, WalletHub compared more than 500 of the largest U.S. cities across three key metrics: ethno-racial diversity, linguistic diversity and birthplace diversity.

Federal Way ranks sixth in ethno-racial diversity; 39th in linguistic diversity; and 122nd in birthplace diversity.

To divide up the size categories, WalletHub sectioned cities into three groups: large cities with a population of more than 300,000 people; midsize cities with 100,000 to 300,000 people; and small cities with less than 100,000 people.

Federal Way ranks 11th overall and 5th among small cities in terms of ethnic diversity, according to the study.

“Ethnic diversity becomes the spice of life, figuratively and literally,” Brown said.