Scottsdale rated 6th-best U.S. city for recreation in recent study

PHOENIX — The city of Scottsdale was named the sixth-best U.S. city for recreation in a recent nationwide study, and four other Arizona-based cities made the top 50.

In WalletHub’s “Best & Worst Cities for Recreation (2025),” it compared the top-100 most populated American cities based on four primary categories: entertainment and recreational facilities, costs, quality of parks and weather.

Phoenix and Tucson were ranked back-to-back at 12th and 13th while Glendale was 29th and Chandler eked in the top 50 at 49th.

Las Vegas, Nevada was rated the top city while Cincinnati, Ohio and Orlando, Florida, came in second and third, respectively.

Each eligible city earned up to 100 points, with entertainment and costs as the heaviest in weight (40 and 30) with quality of parks and weather worth 20 and 10 points.

Subcategories featured music venues per capita, food and wine tours per capita, average food price, movie costs, parkland as share of city area and ideal weather.

How Scottsdale, other Arizona cities fared in recreation study

Scottsdale collected 57.05 points to share sixth with San Diego, California, just over 10 behind Las Vegas at 67.95.

The city received the third-highest mark in the weather category and also finished top 25 in quality of parks (24th).

Regarding quality of parks, Scottsdale was tied with Anchorage, Alaska and Fremont, California for the U.S. cities with the highest percentage of parkland.

One subcategory several Valley towns all excelled at was movie costs. Phoenix, Chandler and Mesa (ranked 55th overall) had the third-lowest movie ticket price with only Corpus Christi, Texas and Lubbock, Texas being lower.

Gilbert was the least recreationally friendly (78th) of Arizona cities involved in the study with near-bottom ratings for entertainment (94th) and quality of parks (96th).

Two New Jersey-based cities — Newark and Jersey City — were the worst recreational cities, earning 35.79 and 34.62 points, respectively.

In late May, Scottsdale was dubbed the top city for summer jobs.

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