This Is the Best-Run City in America

As the US continues along on its COVID recovery path, cities are trying to get back on their feet, with local leadership trying to balance continuing pandemic issues with the other complexities of running their municipalities. WalletHub was curious which cities across America are doing best at this task, including how they keep budgets trim while still offering necessary services. The site looked at 150 of the country's largest cities using more than three dozen metrics in six main categories: financial stability, education, health, safety, economy, and infrastructure and pollution. WalletHub then took the weighted average across all those metrics and came up with a "quality of city services" score, which, when divided by the city's total budget per capita, gave each city its ranking. Nampa, Idaho, rose to the top of the list, while Washington, DC, fell to the bottom. Here, the 10 best- and worst run cities:

Best-Run US Cities

1. Nampa, Idaho (No. 1 in "Total Budget per Capita" category)
2. Boise, Idaho
3. Fort Wayne, Ind.
4. Nashua, NH
5. Lexington-Fayette, Ky.
6. Lincoln, Neb.
7. Las Cruces, NM
8. Oklahoma City
9. Missoula, Mont.
10. Durham, NC

Worst-Run US Cities

141. Gulfport, Miss.
142. Hartford, Conn.
143. Oakland, Calif.
144. Flint, Mich.
145. Detroit (last in "Quality of City Services" category)
146. Cleveland
147. Chattanooga, Tenn.
148. New York
149. San Francisco
150. Washington, DC (last in "Total Budget per Capita" category)

See where other cities fell on WalletHub's list here. (These are the best and worst cities to raise a family.)