What determines how well a city is run? Is it how often the trash is picked up, how safe residents feel on the streets or how quickly city hall responds to complaints?

Local officials face constant challenges to the optimal functioning of their city. There are economic woes, public health crises, threats to public safety and more, and such challenges usually require both financial and human resources to solve. The larger the city, the more complex the problems become, and leaders must carefully consider which services are most essential, which agencies’ budgets to cut or boost, and how much to charge in local taxes, among other decisions.

Last summer, the financial website WalletHub set out to compare the operating efficiency of 148 of the largest U.S. cities and determine which are run the best. The staff started by comparing the quality of the services residents receive against the city’s total budget to calculate its operating efficiency. In other words, they looked at how well city officials managed and spent public funds.

Using that approach, they constructed a “Quality of Services” score made up of 36 metrics grouped into six service categories, which were then measured against the city’s per capita budget.

The data revealed that the cities below are the best-run cities in America.

1. Nampa, Idaho
2. Lexington-Fayette, Ky.
3. Boise, Idaho
4. Nashua, N.H.
5. Oklahoma City, Okla.
6. Durham, N.C.
7. Provo, Utah
8. Fort Wayne, Ind.
9. Sioux Falls, S.D.
10.  Wichita, Kan.

Source: https://wallethub.com/edu/best-run-cities/22869.

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