With July being National Parks and Recreation Month, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on the Best & Worst Cities for Recreation in 2024, along with expert commentary, to showcase the cities that keep their residents the most entertained and active.
WalletHub compared the 100 largest U.S. cities across 47 key indicators of recreation-friendliness. For each city, we examined the availability and cost of recreational activities, along with the quality of parks and the weather.
| Best Cities for Recreation | Worst Cities for Recreation | |
| 1. Las Vegas, NV | 91. Fort Wayne, IN | |
| 2. Orlando, FL | 92. San Jose, CA | |
| 3. Tampa, FL | 93. Jersey City, NJ | |
| 4. Cincinnati, OH | 94. Durham, NC | |
| 5. Honolulu, HI | 95. Hialeah, FL | |
| 6. Scottsdale, AZ | 96. Newark, NJ | |
| 7. San Diego, CA | 97. Fremont, CA | |
| 8. St. Louis, MO | 98. Irving, TX | |
| 9. Atlanta, GA | 99. Oakland, CA | |
| 10. New Orleans, LA | 100. Chula Vista, CA |
Best vs. Worst
- San Francisco and Boston have the highest share of the population with walkable park access, which is 3.1 times higher than in Indianapolis, the city with the lowest.
- Las Vegas has the most playgrounds per square root of the population, which is 22.2 times more than in Hialeah, Florida, the city with the fewest.
- Irvine, California has the highest spending on parks per capita, which is 46.7 times higher than in Newark, New Jersey, the city with the lowest.
- San Francisco has the most bike rental facilities per square root of the population, which is 36.7 times more than in Fresno, California, the city with the fewest.
