ParkScore 2025, TPL/YouGov City Parks Survey

By Charlie McCabe

ParkScore is the annual ranking of park systems of the 100 or so largest cities in the United States.  It’s put together by the Trust for Public Land using data collected from hundreds of public parks agencies and nonprofits.  One of its goals is encourage easy park access for residents of our country, especially in cities – characterized by a 10-minute walk or less for any person to a local park.

Boston, my home city, is one of three cities that provides 100 precent of its residents a ten-minute walk to a park (the other cities are San Francisco and Jersey City) which is significant. A number of cities in the top 25 come close to the

100 percent goal, with New York City, Minneapolis, and St. Paul at 99 percent; and Chicago and Arlington, VA at 98 precent.

Boston’s ParkScore ranking is 12th for 2025, up from 14 in 2024. (Boston is my home city.) Generally, Boston hovers in the top 15 cities, a very competitive group to be in, every year. The number 1 city is (again) Washington DC with perennial favorites Minneapolis at #3, San Francisco at #6, Seattle at #8, and New York City at #13. Complete information is available at www.tpl.org/parkscore.

Park investment by both public park agencies and nonprofit partners is at an all-time high. The ten-minute walk score average for the 100 largest cities is also at an all-time high of 76 percent, compared to 68 percent when ParkScore reported results for the first 25 citis in 2012. 

Trust for Public Land also commissioned a national survey by YouGov of 2,000 adults living in the 100 largest U.S. cities and it provided some amazing results about the impact and influence of public parks and open spaces that I wanted to share.

The outdoors was the number one place people wish they spent more time in the past year to find joy at 38 percent. Homes were second at 24 percent, civic institutions (libraries, museums) and performance venues were tied for third at 19 percent each.

The top 25 city park systems have residents that are healthier, more socially connected, and more civically engaged, compared to the bottom 25 city park systems:

• 19 percent less physical inactivity.

• 9 precent less poor mental health.

• 26 percent more social connections between people of different income groups.

• 61 percent more volunteers per capita.

• 45 percent more civic organizations per capita.

79 percent of respondents have a part where they feel comfortable and want to visit on a regular basis. For residents of the top 25 city park systems, this increases to 83 percent.

Two in three respondents report having had a positive conversation with a stranger in a park.

53 precent of respondents reported having a conversation in a park with a stranger of a different social or economic background in the past year. For residents of the top 25 city park systems, this increases to 59 percent.

Volunteering in parks, including nonprofit support of city parks are at the same level of federal funding for city parks. Over 16 million hours of volunteer time was contributed in the most recent years, equal to $600 million worth of park investment. This is the same amount that public park agencies received in federal grants.

A record $12.2 billion was invested in park and recreation systems, primarily in staffing. The underlying trends driving these efforts are:

• An increase in local funding of staffing (increasing 25 percent since 2019) and capital projects increasing 7 percent, driven in part by dedicated park bonds and taxes.

• A short term boost from one-time COVID era federal funding sources. (95 percent)

• Increased support from volunteers and park nonprofits (26 percent)

71 percent of respondents support programs to improve the quality of existing parkland, even if it meant a small increase in their taxes.

TPL has written a great report - Parks: The Great Unifers, covering these details and much more, along with the full results for all 100 ParkScore cities.

My thanks to TPL for all of this great work, once again, this year.