Best cities of 2026

Everyday destinations close together: groceries, pharmacies, cafes, restaurants, parks and transit stops packed into the city core.

1. 1 Seattle, WA 93.5
2. 2 Los Angeles, CA 84.9
3. 3 Chicago, IL 79.4
4. 4 New York, NY 78.4
5. 5 Dallas, TX 72.7
6. 6 Columbus, OH 69.5
7. 7 Philadelphia, PA 68.2
8. 8 Austin, TX 63.2
9. 9 Houston, TX 61.5
10. 10 Nashville-Davidson, TN 58.4

Parks, gardens, nature reserves and playgrounds, both per resident and per square kilometer of the city core.

1. 1 Columbus, OH 93.3
2. 2 Charlotte, NC 90.5
3. 3 Denver, CO 88.6
4. 4 Seattle, WA 80.0
5. 5 Chicago, IL 71.4
6. 6 Oklahoma City, OK 71.4
7. 7 Philadelphia, PA 69.5
8. 8 Nashville-Davidson, TN 64.8
9. 9 Indianapolis, IN 62.9
10. 10 Jacksonville, FL 61.0

Restaurants, cafes and breweries per resident, plus how densely they cluster in the city core.

1. 1 Seattle, WA 95.2
2. 2 Charlotte, NC 89.5
3. 3 Austin, TX 88.6
4. 4 Nashville-Davidson, TN 81.9
5. 5 Columbus, OH 74.3
6. 6 Indianapolis, IN 68.6
7. 7 Dallas, TX 64.8
8. 8 Oklahoma City, OK 64.8
9. 9 Houston, TX 57.1
10. 10 Denver, CO 52.4

Bars, pubs, clubs, breweries and theaters: how much there is to do after dark.

1. 1 Seattle, WA 94.4
2. 2 Austin, TX 88.1
3. 3 Columbus, OH 81.0
4. 4 Charlotte, NC 79.8
5. 5 Nashville-Davidson, TN 78.6
6. 6 New York, NY 73.8
7. 7 Houston, TX 70.2
8. 8 Indianapolis, IN 68.3
9. 9 Dallas, TX 67.9
10. 10 Oklahoma City, OK 58.3

Museums, galleries, theaters, libraries and attractions per resident.

1. 1 Seattle, WA 98.6
2. 2 Nashville-Davidson, TN 88.4
3. 3 Austin, TX 87.1
4. 4 Columbus, OH 84.4
5. 5 Indianapolis, IN 78.2
6. 6 Oklahoma City, OK 72.8
7. 7 Charlotte, NC 70.1
8. 8 Dallas, TX 60.9
9. 9 Fort Worth, TX 57.1
10. 10 Jacksonville, FL 48.3

Dedicated bike paths and cycleways mapped in the city core, per square kilometer and per resident.

1. 1 Indianapolis, IN 97.6
2. 2 Denver, CO 96.4
3. 3 Seattle, WA 91.7
4. 4 Austin, TX 85.7
5. 5 Houston, TX 78.6
6. 6 Charlotte, NC 77.4
7. 7 Dallas, TX 69.1
8. 8 Columbus, OH 66.7
9. 9 Oklahoma City, OK 65.5
10. 10 New York, NY 45.2

Hospitals, clinics and pharmacies relative to the population they serve and the area they cover.

1. 1 Seattle, WA 98.8
2. 2 Charlotte, NC 83.3
3. 3 Columbus, OH 83.3
4. 4 Austin, TX 71.4
5. 5 Philadelphia, PA 70.2
6. 6 Denver, CO 67.3
7. 7 Oklahoma City, OK 66.1
8. 8 New York, NY 61.9
9. 9 Chicago, IL 57.1
10. 10 Houston, TX 57.1

Playgrounds, parks, schools and libraries per resident.

1. 1 Denver, CO 89.7
2. 2 Seattle, WA 84.9
3. 3 Philadelphia, PA 84.1
4. 4 Columbus, OH 81.0
5. 5 Nashville-Davidson, TN 81.0
6. 6 Indianapolis, IN 74.6
7. 7 Charlotte, NC 72.2
8. 8 Oklahoma City, OK 70.6
9. 9 San Jose, CA 69.8
10. 10 Chicago, IL 61.9

Colleges and universities, with the libraries, cafes and bars that surround campus life.

1. 1 Seattle, WA 95.2
2. 2 Nashville-Davidson, TN 84.1
3. 3 Charlotte, NC 77.8
4. 4 Columbus, OH 77.4
5. 5 Denver, CO 77.0
6. 6 Oklahoma City, OK 76.2
7. 7 Austin, TX 73.8
8. 8 Indianapolis, IN 63.5
9. 9 Philadelphia, PA 59.5
10. 10 Fort Worth, TX 56.4

FEMA National Risk Index scores for the city's county combined with how often FEMA has declared disasters there over the past ten years.

1. 1 Virginia Beach, VA 89.0
2. 2 Madison, WI 88.1
3. 3 Boston, MA 86.5
4. 4 Lincoln, NE 86.3
5. 5 St. Paul, MN 85.9
6. 6 Baltimore, MD 83.6
7. 7 Denver, CO 80.2
8. 8 Lexington-Fayette, KY 79.1
9. 9 Aurora, CO 79.0
10. 10 Albuquerque, NM 78.5

Adult health outcomes and behaviors estimated by the CDC: obesity, physical inactivity, diabetes, smoking, mental distress, sleep and health insurance coverage.

1. 1 Scottsdale, AZ 91.5
2. 2 Seattle, WA 90.0
3. 3 Gilbert, AZ 88.5
4. 4 Irvine, CA 88.1
5. 5 Frisco, TX 88.0
6. 6 San Francisco, CA 85.7
7. 7 Chandler, AZ 84.3
8. 8 Denver, CO 83.5
9. 9 Boise City, ID 82.3
10. 10 Plano, TX 79.6

How many residents can walk to a park in ten minutes, and how much of the city is parkland, from the Trust for Public Land's ParkServe data.

1. 1 Irvine, CA 89.4
2. 2 St. Paul, MN 86.4
3. 3 San Francisco, CA 85.9
4. 4 Boston, MA 85.7
5. 5 Albuquerque, NM 85.3
6. 6 Madison, WI 84.6
7. 7 Minneapolis, MN 82.5
8. 8 Cincinnati, OH 82.3
9. 9 New York, NY 80.8
10. 10 Pittsburgh, PA 78.6

EPA Air Quality Index summaries for the city's county: typical AQI, bad-air days and the share of days with good air. Only counties with air monitors are ranked.

1. 1 Port St. Lucie, FL 95.7
2. 2 Norfolk, VA 95.6
3. 3 Virginia Beach, VA 93.6
4. 4 Richmond, VA 93.3
5. 5 Lincoln, NE 93.2
6. 6 Lubbock, TX 90.4
7. 7 Portland, OR 90.3
8. 8 Cape Coral, FL 89.7
9. 9 Greensboro, NC 88.2
10. 10 Lexington-Fayette, KY 88.0

Households with a broadband internet subscription, and households with no internet at all, from the American Community Survey.

1. 1 Frisco, TX 100.0
2. 2 Gilbert, AZ 99.0
3. 3 Plano, TX 97.6
4. 4 Irvine, CA 96.8
5. 5 Scottsdale, AZ 96.2
6. 6 Chandler, AZ 95.4
7. 7 San Jose, CA 92.3
8. 8 Port St. Lucie, FL 91.9
9. 9 San Diego, CA 90.9
10. 10 Seattle, WA 90.5

Workers who commute by transit, bike or on foot, and how long the average commute takes, from the American Community Survey.

1. 1 Madison, WI 90.1
2. 2 Minneapolis, MN 87.5
3. 3 Pittsburgh, PA 87.1
4. 4 Seattle, WA 83.8
5. 5 Boston, MA 83.3
6. 6 San Francisco, CA 83.0
7. 7 Buffalo, NY 82.8
8. 8 New Orleans, LA 81.8
9. 9 Portland, OR 81.2
10. 10 New York, NY 80.3

Public school students per full-time teacher across all the city's public schools. This measures staffing, not how well students learn, so it is not a school quality ranking.

1. 1 Buffalo, NY 100.0
2. 2 New York, NY 99.0
3. 3 Boston, MA 97.9
4. 4 Pittsburgh, PA 96.8
5. 5 Madison, WI 95.8
6. 6 Jersey City, NJ 94.7
7. 7 Kansas City, MO 93.7
8. 8 Atlanta, GA 92.6
9. 9 St. Louis, MO 91.6
10. 10 Norfolk, VA 90.5

Rent and home prices measured against local incomes, from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey.

1. 1 Lincoln, NE 80.8
2. 2 Wichita, KS 80.2
3. 3 Fort Wayne, IN 79.2
4. 4 Huntsville, AL 78.8
5. 5 Omaha, NE 77.7
6. 6 Anchorage, AK 75.9
7. 7 Oklahoma City, OK 75.8
8. 8 Laredo, TX 74.2
9. 9 Lexington-Fayette, KY 72.4
10. 10 Louisville/Jefferson County, KY 72.2

The average of a city's scores across every other ranking on USCity.review. Cities need scores in at least this many rankings to qualify.

1. 1 Seattle, WA 82.1
2. 2 Madison, WI 79.2
3. 3 Lincoln, NE 75.7
4. 4 Boise City, ID 72.6
5. 5 Boston, MA 72.5
6. 6 St. Paul, MN 71.1
7. 7 Virginia Beach, VA 69.5
8. 8 Jersey City, NJ 68.9
9. 9 Portland, OR 68.7
10. 10 Charlotte, NC 68.0