These Are the Best-Run Cities in America

For those tired of carping about your local government, WalletHub offers up some actual statistics to see if that whining is justified—or if you should be cheering instead. The criteria is relatively simple: the amount of public funds available vs. the quality of services citizens receive. The No. 1 city sports very little government debt per capita ($564, as opposed to larger cities that fall in the $25,000-$35,000 range), a low crime rate, increasing home values, and robust growth in median annual income and the number of businesses. "The larger the city, the more complex it becomes to manage," notes WalletHub, and this is proven out by the bottom-dwellers on the list. Without further ado:

Best-Run Cities

1. Nampa, Idaho
2. Lexington-Fayette, Kentucky
3. Boise, Idaho
4. Nashua, New Hampshire
5. Oklahoma City
6. Durham, North Carolina
7. Provo, Utah
8. Fort Wayne, Indiana
9. Sioux Falls, South Dakota
10. Wichita, Kansas

Worst-Run Cities

139. Los Angeles
140. Detroit
141. Denver
142. Tacoma, Washington
143. Cleveland
144. Flint, Michigan
145. New York City
146. Gulfport, Mississippi
147. Oakland, California
148. San Francisco

See how other cities fared here. (More US cities stories.)