THE locals round Albury/Wodonga know it and now it is official.

When it comes to family living, the region has got it all.

Suncorp Bank has just released its judgement on the 30 top family friendly cities in Australia, including the capitals of each state.

And Albury/Wodonga has come in fourth.

The top family friendly city in the nation was Launceston, followed by Canberra and Toowoomba.

But Albury/Wodonga was the only Victorian or Riverina town to make it into the top 10.

The ratings are worked out by assessing a number of factors including job opportunities, availability of childcare, housing affordability and schools.

Crime rates, health services and internet access were also taken into account.

Suncorp executive manager Craig Fenwick said regional cities were now starting to assert themselves.

"Increasingly the larger, stressful, crowded urban jungles and under-serviced Eastern seaboard capitals were being upstaged by regional cities as the most family friendly in Australia," he said.

"The results reveal for the first time that many regional cities have a better balance of job opportunities, housing affordability, income, school sizes, health services, broadband access and lower crime rates.

"This is the ideal mix for families when it comes to some of the fundamentals, and they’re certainly showing up our international hubs like Sydney and Melbourne, which fall short on many of these measures."

For the record, Melbourne came in equal 14th with Wagga Wagga, while Bendigo was equal 16th, Ballarat 22nd and Geelong 25th.