CA City Is Nation's Worst-Run, Study Finds

SAN FRANCISCO, CA—San Francisco is the worst-run big city in the United States, according to a new study from Wallethub that measures how effectively city leaders spend their funds.

The personal finance website ranked 148 of the nation’s largest cities based on a “Quality of City Services” score made up of 36 metrics measured against cities' per-capita budgets. San Francisco's budget is extremely high, given that the city also functions as a county. The study ranked San Francisco last, concluding residents deserve better services for the amount of money spent.

The metrics were grouped into six categories that informed the Quality of City Services score: Financial Stability, Education, Health, Safety, and Infrastructure & Pollution. San Francisco actually did reasonably well overall in these metrics, scoring 52nd in “Financial Stability,” 15th in “Education,” first in “Health,” 107th in “Safety,” and 133rd in “Infrastructure & Pollution,” for an overall rank of 24th.

What dropped it to last place overall is its Long-Term Debt Outstanding per Capita, which was ranked last.

San Francisco has ranked last or near-last on this study for the past few years, and in 2022, San Francisco City Controller Ben Rosenfield and Chief Economist Ted Egan criticized the study, saying that many of the services listed were not actually under the control of the city budget, like county hospitals or school districts. Rosenfield and Egan told Newsweek that “local government as a percentage of county GDP would have been a far better measure.”

A Wallethub spokesperson responded that while a city administration does not have full control over all measures, it can influence them.

In the most recent study, San Francisco’s next-door neighbor Oakland ranked 147th, with a services rank of 103 and a “Total Budget per Capita” rank of 146. San Jose ranked 111th, with a services rank of 23 and a budget per capita rank of 134. Los Angeles ranked 139th, with a services rank of 57 and a budget per capita rank of 144, while San Diego ranked 79th, with services rank of 13 and a budget per capita rank of 116.

The top performing city wass Nampa, Idaho, which ranked 45th in services and 1st in budget per capita.

Below are the Top 10 and Bottom 10 cities, according to the study. The bottom includes most of the nation's major cities (Philadelphia and Chicago rank just above LA), while the top cities are relatively small.

Top 10

1. Nampa, Idaho
2. Lexington-Fayette, Kentucky
3. Boise, Idaho
4. Nashua, New Hampshire
5. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
6. Durham, North Carolina
7. Provo, Utah
8. Fort Wayne, Indiana
9. Sioux Falls, South Dakota
10. Wichita, Kansas

Bottom 10

1. Los Angeles, California
2. Detroit, Michigan
3. Denver, Colorado
4. Tacoma, Washington
5. Cleveland, Ohio
6. Flint, Michigan
7. New York, New York
8. Gulfport, Mississippi
9. Oakland, California
10. San Francisco, California

See here for the full rankings, and more about the methodology.