- Quality of city services rank: 144
- Financial stability rank: 144
- Education rank: 88
- Health rank: 141
- Safety rank: 112
- Economy rank: 140
- Infrastructure and pollution rank: 122

Shreveport is struggling with a stagnant economy, which is pushing residents out in search of greener pastures. Of those who remain, some 23% live below the poverty line. That sort of financial insecurity means that little money flows into the city, which can be tied to higher crime rates.

- Quality of city services rank: 96
- Financial stability rank: 131
- Education rank: 47
- Health rank: 51
- Safety rank: 68
- Economy rank: 28
- Infrastructure and pollution rank: 139

Riverside, California, is run by a mayor and seven council members. Mayor Patricia Lock Dawson has said she wants to improve the local economy and restore the Santa Ana River to be more prominent in citizens' lives. In the meantime, the city has warned its residents to conserve water as the groundwater levels continue to drop in the Riverside and San Bernardino basins, the source of the city's drinking water.

- Quality of city services rank: 17
- Financial stability rank: 24
- Education rank: 11
- Health rank: 13
- Safety rank: 94
- Economy rank: 60
- Infrastructure and pollution rank: 41

It might be surprising to see Seattle so high on this list, given that the city fares well in many respects. It offers its residents a high level of education, health, and city services, but that comes at a cost—namely, a large budget. Seattle also has "a high level of outstanding long-term debt per capita, high crime rates, and low percentages of sheltered homeless persons," WalletHub analyst Jill Gonzalez told The Center Square.

- Quality of city services rank: 135
- Financial stability rank: 114
- Education rank: 45
- Health rank: 121
- Safety rank: 146
- Economy rank: 138
- Infrastructure and pollution rank: 53

Randall L. Woodfin, the mayor of Birmingham, Alabama, is working to improve economic development, neighborhood revitalization, education and career opportunities, and public safety. His crime-fighting plan includes putting more police officers on the streets, and the city's community outreach program aims to improve relations with the public. For now, however, Birmingham ranks low in a number of critical categories.

- Quality of city services rank: 132
- Financial stability rank: 104
- Education rank: 135
- Health rank: 114
- Safety rank: 136
- Economy rank: 121
- Infrastructure and pollution rank: 84

Cleveland is governed by a 17-member council and an elected mayor. According to Niche, the city's median household income is about half the national average, and the most recent Census Bureau estimates show a child poverty rate of over 45%, the highest of any U.S. city with a population above 300,000. Mayor Justin Bibb has feuded with the council over everything from violent crime in the city to the war in Gaza, while also trying to improve public access to Lake Erie, on the city's north boundary.

- Quality of city services rank: 83
- Financial stability rank: 49
- Education rank: 91
- Health rank: 50
- Safety rank: 131
- Economy rank: 90
- Infrastructure and pollution rank: 69

Denver has a mayor and a 13-member City Council, with 11 elected members representing geographic districts and two representing the entire city. Denver has been listed as one of the U.S. cities with the highest crime rates. According to the Council on Criminal Justice, its homicide rate went up 28% from 2019 to 2024, but the city has seen improvements: In the first half of 2025, Denver experienced an impressive 45% drop in homicides from the year prior.

- Quality of city services rank: 140
- Financial stability rank: 132
- Education rank: 136
- Health rank: 133
- Safety rank: 137
- Economy rank: 143
- Infrastructure and pollution rank: 18

New Orleans' City Council has seven members and a mayor. The city's labor market and wages lag behind the national average, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. New Orleans' police department also came under scrutiny after the deadly terrorist attack on Bourbon Street in the early hours of Jan. 1, 2025. However, there has been a significant reduction in violent crime in 2025.

- Quality of city services rank: 102
- Financial stability rank: 148
- Education rank: 2
- Health rank: 60
- Safety rank: 53
- Economy rank: 120
- Infrastructure and pollution rank: 26

Chicago ranks among cities with the highest long-term outstanding debt per capita in the country. Although its infrastructure and pollution are well managed, along with its strong education system, Chicago's economy is doing worse than that of the United States as a whole, with an unemployment rate higher than the national average.

- Quality of city services rank: 145
- Financial stability rank: 32
- Education rank: 144
- Health rank: 138
- Safety rank: 132
- Economy rank: 147
- Infrastructure and pollution rank: 51

In the wake of 2015 revelations that the city's municipal water supply was contaminated by lead and other pollutants, there has been global attention on structural and environmental racism in Flint, Michigan. A decade later, the water problems have not been fully resolved, and the city's residents have also experienced a mental health crisis, with high rates of depression and PTSD.

- Quality of city services rank: 137
- Financial stability rank: 141
- Education rank: 84
- Health rank: 81
- Safety rank: 115
- Economy rank: 107
- Infrastructure and pollution rank: 148

Stockton, California's government is composed of a full-time mayor and six part-time council members. Although the city ranks as one of the lowest for infrastructure and pollution, the Public Works Department manages a Capital Improvement Program that aims to renovate parks, make streets safer for cyclists and pedestrians, and renovate two buildings into a new City Hall. At the same time, the City Hall project has earned pushback for rapidly escalating costs and very little oversight.

- Quality of city services rank: 58
- Financial stability rank: 102
- Education rank: 38
- Health rank: 24
- Safety rank: 76
- Economy rank: 129
- Infrastructure and pollution rank: 74

Even before the devastating fires in early 2025, Los Angeles was in the midst of a severe homelessness problem. The city's unhoused population outpaced New York City's in 2022 to become the largest in the nation but has since seen numbers go down.

Despite an 18% jump in homelessness nationwide from 2023 to 2024, Los Angeles' unhoused population decreased for the first time in seven years, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. That trend has continued into 2025.

- Quality of city services rank: 51
- Financial stability rank: 119
- Education rank: 12
- Health rank: 18
- Safety rank: 64
- Economy rank: 94
- Infrastructure and pollution rank: 112

Long Beach has struggled with economic and financial stability. It's currently grappling with a $20 million budget shortfall for the 2026 fiscal year, with $61.5 million projected over the next five years. The city is governed by nine council officials and a mayor, currently Rex Richardson, who's been focusing on affordable housing, growing the economy, and public safety since taking office in 2022.

- Quality of city services rank: 117
- Financial stability rank: 121
- Education rank: 57
- Health rank: 93
- Safety rank: 80
- Economy rank: 102
- Infrastructure and pollution rank: 138

Along with the seven-member Fresno City Council, Mayor Jerry Dyer has been focused on reducing homelessness and revitalizing the downtown area. Perhaps unsurprisingly for a city led by its former police chief, Fresno boosted funding for its fire and police departments in hopes of improving emergency response times.

- Quality of city services rank: 125
- Financial stability rank: 103
- Education rank: 87
- Health rank: 86
- Safety rank: 145
- Economy rank: 55
- Infrastructure and pollution rank: 85

Tacoma, Washington, has eight elected city councilors, an elected mayor, and an appointed city manager. The West Coast city ranks particularly low in terms of city services and safety. The violent crime rate is almost twice the national average, and the homicide rate is more than triple the U.S. average.

- Quality of city services rank: 136
- Financial stability rank: 76
- Education rank: 146
- Health rank: 147
- Safety rank: 127
- Economy rank: 137
- Infrastructure and pollution rank: 87

Baltimore is governed by a 15-member city council, with 14 members representing each of the municipal districts, and a council president elected citywide. The city has one of the lowest high school graduation rates in the U.S. but also ranks poorly in terms of health, economy, and quality of city services.

- Quality of city services rank: 128
- Financial stability rank: 124
- Education rank: 139
- Health rank: 118
- Safety rank: 116
- Economy rank: 127
- Infrastructure and pollution rank: 55

Since Cherelle Parker took office as mayor in 2024, she's come under scrutiny for her tough-on-crime approach, as well as a $1 million funding cut for Prevention Point, a harm reduction and syringe exchange organization in the city. In a September 2025 State of the City address, Parker touted a reduction in homicide rates and economic growth. For the time being, though, Philadelphia still ranks low in most of WalletHub's categories.

- Quality of city services rank: 23
- Financial stability rank: 77
- Education rank: 21
- Health rank: 16
- Safety rank: 31
- Economy rank: 136
- Infrastructure and pollution rank: 24

New York City is governed by a mayor and a 51-member City Council. It received national attention in 2024 and early 2025, thanks to a sprawling corruption indictment brought against Mayor Eric Adams, who continues to govern the U.S.'s biggest city. Adams, a former NYPD officer who took office in 2022, ironically focused much of his time in office on crime, as well as housing. In September 2025, The New York Times called the city's economic forecast "cloudy."

- Quality of city services rank: 99
- Financial stability rank: 97
- Education rank: 60
- Health rank: 5
- Safety rank: 141
- Economy rank: 123
- Infrastructure and pollution rank: 94

Oakland, California's eight-member city council has prioritized violence prevention, public services, and modernizing the city's tax structure. Oakland's crime levels remain very high, with a theft rate more than 2.5 times the national average, and an assault rate more than nine times higher than the rest of the country. Oakland's downtown, which was struggling to survive before the pandemic, has been slow to recover in its wake—even its iconic Tribune Tower is now in loan default.

- Quality of city services rank: 148
- Financial stability rank: 145
- Education rank: 133
- Health rank: 136
- Safety rank: 143
- Economy rank: 146
- Infrastructure and pollution rank: 120

Detroit's unemployment rate reached a historic 33-year low in 2023 but has since been on the rise. The city also has a crisis in infant mortality rates, especially among Black families. The city's air quality is under scrutiny, with the Sierra Club suing the Environmental Protection Agency to force city and state officials to do more to curb air pollution. In August 2025, Detroit ranked as the third-worst city for air quality in the world thanks to wildfire smoke from Canada.

- Quality of city services rank: 57
- Financial stability rank: 89
- Education rank: 137
- Health rank: 2
- Safety rank: 102
- Economy rank: 135
- Infrastructure and pollution rank: 13

In 2022, WalletHub data ranked San Francisco as the second-worst run in the country, and in 2023, it moved to the dreaded #1 spot, which it has maintained ever since. The city provides good health services but has an enormous homelessness problem. San Francisco's average rent is over $1,000 more than the national average, which has contributed to the ongoing housing crisis. Moreover, the city's crime rates exceed those of the U.S. as a whole in every category.

Additional writing by Jaimie Etkin and Cu Fleshman. Story editing by Louis Peitzman.