WalletHub recently released its 2019 ranking of the 100 Best and Worst Cities for Recreation. Where did Sacramento rank?
To develop its ranking of the 100 Best and Worst Cities for Recreation, WalletHub looked at the largest 100 cities in the U.S. Each city was evaluated on:
- Basic living costs
- Quality of parks
- Accessibility of entertainment and recreational facilities
- Weather
Methodology
WalletHub considered only the city proper and excluded cities in the surrounding metro area. Forty-eight (48) metrics relevant to recreation were evaluated, each graded on a 100-point scale (a score of 100 representing the highest level of recreation-friendless). WalletHub then determined each city’s weighted average across all metrics to calculate its overall score.
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Ranking Results for California Cities
No. 1 on the list is San Diego, CA with a total score of 58.27. Coming in last at No. 100 with a score of 31.91 is Jersey City, NJ.
California cities and their ranking are:
- San Diego (1)
- Los Angeles (10)
- San Francisco (11)
- Sacramento (18)
- Long Beach (32)
- Irvine (42)
- Anaheim (44)
- Bakersfield (62)
- Stockton (68)
- San Bernardino (1)
- San Jose (74)
- Riverside (77)
- Fresno (79)
- Santa Ana (81)
- Fremont (91)
- Chula Vista (96)
- Oakland (98)
Comparison of Sacramento (#18) to San Diego (#1)
Entertainment and Recreational Facilities
- Sacramento – #25
- San Diego – #4
Costs
- Sacramento – #72
- San Diego – #70
Quality of Parks
- Sacramento – #42
- San Diego – #11
Weather
- Sacramento – #9
- San Diego – #34
So there you have it – I personally would not have guessed that Sacramento would rank higher, let alone that much higher, than San Diego when it came to weather.
Metrics Used to Rank the 100 Best and Worst Cities for Recreation
- The Entertainment and Recreational Facilities category was assigned a value of 40 points total. The metrics evaluated included a diverse list of amenities such as the number of music venues, coffee shops, golf courses, hiking trails, bike rental facilities, restaurants, food festivals, sports venues, etc. The metrics were evaluated on a per capita basis.
- The Cost category was assigned a value of 30 points total. Costs included an evaluation of spending on parks and recreation per capita, movie costs, average fitness club fee, average food price, prevalence of affordable 4.5+ star restaurants, etc.
- The Quality of Parks category was assigned a value of 20 total points. Metrics evaluated included metrics such as the share of population with walkable park access, parkland as share of city area, park playgrounds per capita, etc.
- The Weather category was assigned a value of 10 points total. WallebHub utilized its 2014 ranking of “Cities with the Best & Worst Weather”)
In the WalletHub 2014 weather ranking Sacramento ranked:
- Four Seasons (Overall) – Top 6%
- Mild Weather (Overall) – Top 11%
- Winter – Top 17%
- Spring – Top 9%
- Summer – Top 6%
- Fall – Top 2%
Note: WalletHub evaluated 600 cities and assigned each city a percentile rank – so a rank of 10% means that the city was ranked in the top 10% cities overall or for that particular season.
See related blog post: Where Does Sacramento Rank?
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