Forbes Ranks The Best Cities For The Outdoors

May 12, 2008

Forbes Methodology

To determine which of the 40 largest cities were best for the outdoors, we used research from the nonprofit organization Trust for Public Land, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). We included the following data: spending per resident, park land as a percentage of city land, number of recreation facilities, precipitation, sunshine, temperature extremes and air quality.

For spending, park land and recreation, we used fiscal year 2006 data collected by the Trust for Public Land, which gathered information from city municipalities. To measure recreation opportunities, we looked at the number of ball diamonds, tennis courts and pools and created a Forbes.com recreation index.

For sunshine, precipitation and temperature extremes, we used annual averages from NOAA. For air quality, we used data from the EPA and averaged the number of days between 1999 and 2006 when the air quality index for all pollutants rose above 100. Index values between 100 and 500 are considered unhealthy and/or hazardous. We ranked the cities in each category and assigned them total scores.

San Antonio, Texas

Rank: No. 24
Spending Per Resident: $56
Park Land As Percentage Of City Land: 7.6%
Forbes.com Recreation Index Rank: No. 39
Average Annual Percentage Of Sunny Days: 60%
Days With Temperature 90 Degrees Or Higher: 113
Days With Temperature 32 Degrees Or Lower: 21
Days With Measurable Precipitation (0.01 Inches Or More): 75
Days With Unhealthy Air Quality: 5.6