With July being National Parks and Recreation Month and America’s largest cities investing over $8 billion on parks this past year, the personal-finance website WalletHub has released its report on 2019’s Best & Worst Cities for Recreation as well as accompanying videos.
To highlight the benefits of recreational activities for consumers and economies across the country, WalletHub compared the 100 largest U.S. cities across 48 key indicators of recreation-friendliness. For each city, the study examined the accessibility of entertainment and recreational facilities, the quality of parks and the weather.
Best Cities for Recreation, Top 10: San Diego, CA; Las Vegas, NV; Orlando, FL; Honolulu, HI; Tampa, FL; Atlanta, GA; Cincinnati, OH; Scottsdale, AZ; Portland, OR; Los Angeles, CA.
Worst Cities for Recreation, Bottom 10: Fremont, CA; Durham, NC; Memphis, TN; Hialeah, FL; Anchorage, AK; Chula Vista, CA; Fort Wayne, IN; Oakland, CA; Irving, TX; Jersey City, NJ.
To view the full report and city ranks, visit: https://wallethub.com/edu/best-worst-cities-for-recreation/5144/.
San Francisco has the highest share of the population with walkable park access, 100 percent, which is 3.8 times higher than in Gilbert, Arizona, the city with the lowest at 26 percent.
New York has the most playgrounds per square root of the population, 0.6607, which is 18.9 times more than in Hialeah, Florida, the city with the fewest at 0.0349.
San Francisco has the highest spending on parks per capita, $279, which is 11.6 times higher than in Stockton, California, the city with the lowest at $24.
San Francisco has the most bike rental facilities per square root of the population, 0.0667, which is 47.6 times more than in Fresno, California, the city with the fewest at 0.0014.