Portland Ranked Among Best Cities in U.S. for Runners
Friday, April 14, 2017
According to a study completed by SmartAsset, Portland is the 10th best city in the U.S. for runners.
Here is how SmartAsset scored Portland:
- 1.87 - Races per 10,000 Residents
- 63.9 - Walk Score
- 24.4% - Housing Costs as a Percent of Income
- 23.4% - Acres of Park per 1,000 Residents
- 1.10 - Gyms per 10,000 Residents
“This city holds off other competitors outside the top 10 due to its consistently solid scores. In all metrics save one, Portland ranks in the top half. Rip City’s best scores come in the two park-related metrics. Portland ranks 16th for parkland as a percentage of the city area and 29th for acres of parkland per 1,000 residents,” said SmartAsset.
The Rankings
Portland ranks directly behind Washington, DC and San Francisco, California who rank 8th and 9th respectively. Portland ranks ahead of Lincoln, Nebraska and St. Louis Missouri, who rank 11th and 12th respectively.
SmartAsset ranks Madison, Wisconsin as the best city in the country for runners. Cleveland, Ohio is ranked as the worst.
See the Rankings Below
The Method
In order to find the best cities for runners, SmartAsset looked at 100 of the largest cities in the country. Specifically, we looked at the following eight metrics:
- Acres of parkland per 1,000 residents. This metric measures relative access to parks. Data comes from the Trust for Public Land and is from 2015.
- Parkland as a percentage of city area. This metric measures how much of a city’s area is taken up by parkland. Data comes from the Trust for Public Land and is from 2015.
- Number of gyms per 10,000 residents. Population data comes from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2015 1-Year American Community Survey. Data on gyms comes from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2014 Business Patterns Survey.
- Pedestrians fatality rate per 100,000 residents. This is the number of pedestrians killed in vehicular accidents per 100,000 residents. Data comes from National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and is from 2014. It is measured at the state level.
- Races per 10,000 residents. Data comes from runningintheusa.com and contains data on races of all types of distances, including marathons, half marathons, 10ks, 5ks and trails races.
- Walk score. This metric measures how walkable a city is. Data comes from walkscore.com
- Housing costs as a percent of income. This metric measures a city’s affordability. Data on median housing costs comes from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2015 1-Year American Community Survey. Data on median household incomes comes from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2015 1-Year American Community Survey.
- Percentage of workforce who walks to work. Data comes from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2015 1-Year American Community Survey.
SmartAsset ranked each city across each of the eight metrics giving a single weighting to all metrics except parkland as a percentage of city area which received a half weight. After, averaging those rankings, they applied a score based on the average rankings. The city with the highest average ranking received a 100 while the city with the lowest average ranking received a 0.
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