The Best and Worst Cities For Outdoor Recreation

If a running store owner in or near Chula Vista, CA, ever wondered why business is slow they need to look no further than a recently released report on 2023's Best & Worst Cities for Recreation, which places that southern California city at the bottom of the list. On the flip side, it’s good to do business in Las Vegas – hear that Red Rock Running! – which tops the rankings this year.

With July being National Parks and Recreation Month, and maintaining a healthy weight through exercise saving people up to $1500 in health care costs each year, the personal-finance website WalletHub annually releases its report on 2023's Best & Worst Cities for Recreation, as well as expert commentary.

To highlight the benefits of recreational activities for consumers and economies across the country, WalletHub compared the 100 largest U.S. cities across 48 key indicators of recreation-friendliness. For each city, they examined the accessibility of entertainment and recreational facilities, the quality of parks and the weather. The results:

Best Cities for Recreation
1. Las Vegas, NV
2. Orlando, FL
3. Tampa, FL
4. Cincinnati, OH
5. Atlanta, GA
6. Scottsdale, AZ
7. San Diego, CA
8. Honolulu, HI
9. St. Louis, MO

Worst Cities for Recreation
91. Indianapolis, IN
92. Aurora, CO
93. Hialeah, FL
94. Fort Wayne, IN
95. Jersey City, NJ
96. Oakland, CA
97. Irving, TX
98. Durham, NC
99. Newark, NJ
100. Chula Vista, CA

Neighborhood parks and trails are one of the most beneficial types of recreation a city can offer, the WalletHub report indicates. Research has found that having a park within 500 to 600 feet of your property can have a significant impact on its value. In addition, parks help people stay fit, saving them as much as $1500 in healthcare costs per year, and they reduce the overall costs of air pollution by $3.8 billion per year.

Some more insight:

San Francisco and Boston have the highest share of the population with walkable park access, 100 percent, which is 3.1 times higher than in Indianapolis, the city with the lowest at 32 percent.
New York has the most playgrounds per square root of the population, 13 times more than in Hialeah, FL, the city with the fewest.
San Francisco has the highest spending on parks per capita, $515, which is 15.6 times higher than in Jersey City, NJ, the city with the lowest at $33.
San Francisco has the most bike rental facilities per square root of the population, 35 times more than in Kansas City, MO, the city with the fewest.

To view the entire report: https://wallethub.com/edu/best-worst-cities-for-recreation/5144