Top 9 big cities in the USA

After analysing the relative StateScores for the Top 10 and 10 worst US states, it's time to look at the ratings for cities. Nine US cities are listed as having a population of over one million people as estimated by the US Census Bureau, and we have compared the CityScores to make a list of the best big cities in the US as rated by StreetAdvisor.com community members.

1. Philadelphia (pop 1,448,394), Pennsylvania (CityScore 79.05)
2. San Diego (pop 1,256,951), California (CityScore 75.09)
3. Dallas (pop 1,232,940), Texas (CityScore 74.41)
4. San Antonio (pop 1,296,682), Texas (CityScore 73.10)
5. Houston (pop 2,144,491), Texas (CityScore 70.72)
6. Chicago (pop 2,833,321), Illinois (CityScore 67.51)
7. Phoenix (1,512,986), Arizona (CityScore 66.63)
8. New York City (pop 8,250,567), New York (CityScore 65.11)
9. Los Angeles (pop 3,849,378), California (CityScore 62.59)

The Art Museum area of Philadelphia by GooseGoddessS - Creative Commons License

Philadelphia wins by a large margin. The largest two cities, New York City and Los Angeles, score the worst, perhaps reflecting their high living costs. The smaller 'large' cities with just over one million people rate best. What is it about cities of this size that people like?

What do you think of these ratings? Do you, or have you, lived in these cities? Log into StreetAdvisor.com and tell us what makes your city special.

Comments

[Roberta Murphy - San Diego Real Estate]

Thanks for a great list--and I happen to agree with most of it. However, ranking San Diego behind Philadelphia is a stretch!(;-)