Philadelphia is U.S.’ fifth-worst-run city: Study

(NEXSTAR) — A lot goes into running a city of any size but for bigger cities, it can be even more difficult. Recently, financial news and resource outlet WalletHub compared the U.S.’ 148 largest cities to find out which ones run well and which ones don’t.

And Philadelphia has a lot of work to do, according to the rankings.

To figure this out, WalletHub graded cities across six categories, including financial stability, health, safety, economy and infrastructure. Cities were then given scores out of 100, with 100 being the “best.”

Here’s how Philly ranked in WalletHub’s 2025 list of Best- and Worst-Run Cities in America. Rankings below are how Philadelphia ranked out of 148 in each category.

Overall rank	Financial stability	Safety	Economy	Infrastructure/pollution
144.	124.	116.	127.	55.

While Philadelphia’s national ranking is among the lowest on the list, the city did receive higher marks than you might expect, based on its overall score, in the infrastructure/pollution category. Philly earned a national ranking of 55th.

To get a more 360 view of each city, WalletHub also graded cities for what it calls “Quality of Services,” which analyzed “how well city officials manage and spend public funds.” To do this, WalletHub writer Adam McCann compared the quality of services residents receive against the city’s total budget.

Here, Philly received a “Quality of Services” score of 44.89 out of 100. All-in-all, Philadelphia ranked 128th nationally based on how the city’s budget works for its residents, per WalletHub.

For comparison, Pennsylvania’s other city analyzed in the study, Pittsburgh, ranked 30 spots higher than Philly, coming in at 118th nationally overall. Pittsburgh received an “Quality of Services” score of 58.10.

The City of Philadelphia recently approved Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s $6.8 billion “One Philly 2.0” budget for 2026, which allocates $1 billion for various public safety investments and $716 million to support SEPTA operation, among numerous allocations.

Finally, even though Philly ranked low in WalletHub’s analysis, it’s important to know that some other major cities ranked even lower, including New York City (145th) and San Francisco, which ranked dead-last. To read the full ranking, visit WalletHub.