America's best-run cities revealed
America's best run city has been revealed, and it's led by a Republican in a deep red state. Provo, Utah , has been declared the most efficient city in the United States by WalletHub thanks to its safe streets and the quality of its government services. Mayor Michelle Kaufusi, a Republican who is native to the city, has been running Provo since 2017. The city's residents tend to stick with Republican candidates in all their elections.
The study looked at the 148 largest cities in the country and analyzed their unemployment rates, crime rates, infrastructure quality, education outcomes and economic health. Provo ranked No. 1 largely because it has the fourth-lowest violent crime rate in the country, the seventh-lowest property crime rate and the 22nd-best roads.
The city of just over 113,000 also shows signs of improving in the future as its economy continues to grow, while boasting the eighth-lowest unemployment rate in the nation.
'The city is experiencing business growth of around 5.2%, alongside a high school graduation rate of nearly 91%, a combination that signals a strong foundation for the future,' the authors of the study wrote. Provo hugely benefits from its proximity to the much bigger Salt Lake City, Utah's capital and a fast-growing metropolis in its own right . Provo's success is followed by Nampa, Idaho, which came away with the No. 2 spot in the study, according to research by WalletHub.
Nampa has a nearly identical population to Provo at around 114,000 and is also run by a Republican, Mayor Debbie Kling. A large factor in Nampa's high score is the fact that its government has staggeringly low debt. According to the study, its long-term outstanding debt per capita is just $478. This essentially means if every citizen decided to pay that amount - which equates to the base price of an iPad mini - into the city's coffers, Nampa would be debt free.
To achieve the same thing in New York City, each of its roughly eight million residents would have to pay $34,567 . Perhaps Nampa's greatest positive is that it has the lowest property crime rate in the country. As for other economic indicators, it has the 13th lowest poverty rate and a 7% median annual income growth rate.
Going over to the east coast, Manchester, New Hampshire, ranked as the third best-run city in the US. Republican Jay Ruais became the mayor of Manchester in January 2024. The office was previously held by Joyce Craig, a Democrat, since 2018. Manchester shines in the realm of the environment, claiming the seventh-lowest air pollution rate in the country.
It also has a strong economy, with the 15th lowest unemployment rate and a low share of its residents living in poverty. Last December, Manchester was ranked by Zillow as having the hottest real estate market in the nation. The city of over 115,000 people has seen growing interest among buyers, which drove average home prices up 7.3% last year, up to $415,000.
Home prices in the burgeoning suburb have since risen another 6% to more than $440,000 . People could be potentially flocking to Manchester because in New Hampshire, there is no income tax or general sales tax.
San Francisco was ranked the worst in WalletHub's study because it has the single worst debt burden of any city in the US. The infamously Democrat run city is a byword for vagrancy, open drug taking and progressive lawmakers whose policies have been blamed for those problems. S&P Global , a respected bond rating firm, downgraded San Francisco's financial health in December 2024 and rated its outlook as 'negative.'
San Francisco voters booted their progressive mayor and district attorney in recent years, but their more centrist replacements face an uphill struggle to return the city to its former glory. Detroit, Michigan, Oakland, California, and Baltimore, Maryland, were at the bottom of the list, too, for their astonishingly high violent crime rates. Baltimore's public schools also have one of the lowest graduation rates in the country at just 71%.
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