How Strong Are Your City's Finances? 116 US Cities Ranked
City Fiscal Strength Index 2017

How Strong Are Your City's Finances? 116 US Cities Ranked

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To compile this Fiscal Health Index, we looked at 116 U.S. cities with populations greater than 200,000, using data from 2015 financial reports issued by the cities themselves. Our scoring system is described in a new working paper. It uses five factors:

1. the ratio of a city’s general fund balance to its expenditures (40 percent weighting)

2. the ratio of its long term obligations (including OPEB but excluding pensions) to total government-wide revenues (30 percent weighting)

3. the ratio of actuarially determined pension contributions to total government-wide revenues (10 percent weighting)

4. change in local unemployment rate (10 percent weighting)

5. change in property values (10 percent weighting).

Related: Chicago, New York in Worst Financial Shape Among Large US Cities

Read the full methodology here. Click the table headers below to sort by ranking, city name, state or fiscal strength score. Click each city's name to get more details about its score.

RankingCityStateFiscal strength Score
1 Irvine California 100
2 Fontana California 99
3 Moreno Valley California 97
4 Huntington Beach California 94
5 Santa Ana California 94
6 Glendale California 93
7 Boston Massachusetts 92
8 Fayetteville North Carolina 89
9 Washington District of Columbia 88
10 Boise Idaho 88
11 Chula Vista California 87
12 Fremont California 87
13 Durham North Carolina 87
14 Oklahoma City Oklahoma 87
15 Chesapeake Virginia 86
16 Aurora Colorado 86
17 Gilbert Arizona 85
18 Stockton California 85
19 Minneapolis Minnesota 84
20 Chandler Arizona 84
21 Greensboro North Carolina 84
22 Columbus Georgia 84
23 St. Petersburg Florida 83
24 San Diego California 82
25 Sacramento California 82
26 Oakland California 82
27 Bakersfield California 82
28 Plano Texas 81
29 Las Vegas Nevada 81
30 Seattle Washington 80
31 Tacoma Washington 80
32 Lexington Kentucky 80
33 San Francisco California 76
34 Lincoln Nebraska 75
35 Arlington Texas 75
36 Irving Texas 75
37 Madison Wisconsin 74
38 Miami Florida 74
39 Rochester New York 74
40 Des Moines Iowa 73
41 Louisville Kentucky 73
42 Modesto California 73
43 Phoenix Arizona 73
44 Spokane Washington 72
45 Denver Colorado 72
46 Indianapolis Indiana 72
47 Memphis Tennessee 72
48 San Jose California 72
49 Detroit Michigan 72
50 Long Beach California 71
51 Buffalo New York 71
52 St. Paul Minnesota 71
53 Birmingham Alabama 71
54 Cincinnati Ohio 71
55 Virginia Beach Virginia 71
56 Charlotte North Carolina 70
57 Raleigh North Carolina 70
58 Honolulu Hawaii 70
59 Baton Rouge Louisiana 69
60 Tampa Florida 69
61 Oxnard California 68
62 Atlanta Georgia 68
63 Tulsa Oklahoma 67
64 Winston-Salem North Carolina 67
65 Pittsburgh Pennsylvania 66
66 Riverside California 65
67 Fort Worth Texas 65
68 San Antonio Texas 65
69 Fresno California 65
70 Baltimore Maryland 64
71 Albuquerque New Mexico 64
72 Orlando Florida 63
73 Henderson Nevada 63
74 Laredo Texas 63
75 Lubbock Texas 62
76 Milwaukee Wisconsin 62
77 Glendale Arizona 62
78 Jersey City New Jersey 61
79 Yonkers New York 61
80 Corpus Christi Texas 61
81 Tucson Arizona 60
82 Richmond Virginia 60
83 Garland Texas 60
84 Scottsdale Arizona 59
85 Mesa Arizona 59
86 Anaheim California 58
87 Norfolk Virginia 57
88 San Bernardino California 57
89 Nashville Tennessee 56
90 Aurora Illinois 56
91 Newark New Jersey 56
92 North Las Vegas Nevada 56
93 Hialeah Florida 55
94 Austin Texas 55
95 Colorado Springs Colorado 54
96 Los Angeles California 54
97 New Orleans Louisiana 54
98 Anchorage Alaska 54
99 Wichita Kansas 52
100 Omaha Nebraska 51
101 Kansas City Missouri 50
102 Jacksonville Florida 50
103 Portland Oregon 50
104 Dallas Texas 49
105 Houston Texas 49
106 Cleveland Ohio 49
107 Columbus Ohio 49
108 Montgomery Alabama 48
109 El Paso Texas 42
110 Fort Wayne Indiana 42
111 Philadelphia Pennsylvania 41
112 St. Louis Missouri 37
113 Reno Nevada 36
114 Toledo Ohio 36
115 New York New York 26
116 Chicago Illinois 25

TOP READS FROM THE FISCAL TIMES

  • Marc Joffe

    Marc Joffe, a senior policy analyst at the Reason Foundation, has written for the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and the Haas Institute at UC Berkeley. Previously, he was the director of policy research for the California Policy Center and a senior director at Moody’s Analytics.