Provo's Rise To Best-Run City: What Contributed To This Success?

There will be no living with them now.

First, after being picked to be near the bottom of the pack in Big 12 football, the BYU football team had a stellar year and we almost in the playoff series. They then went on to demolish Colorado in the Alamo Bowl.

Then, again after a less than complimentary pre-season ranking, the BYU basketball team goes on to play in to the Sweet 16 in the NCAA tournament.

And now this.

WalletHub has released their rankings of the Best and Worst Run Cities in America, and believe it or not, Provo, Utah is ranked as the best run city in the country.

Canva

I've never known Provo to be over abundant in humility, and this is not going to help.

To assess city management performance, WalletHub analyzed the operating efficiency of 148 of the most populous U.S. cities. The study focused on how well local officials spend public money relative to the quality of services provided. Researchers developed a “Quality of City Services” score based on 36 key metrics grouped into six categories: Financial Stability, Education, Health, Safety, Economy, and Infrastructure & Pollution.

Each metric was scored on a 100-point scale, with higher scores representing better service quality. WalletHub then calculated a “Score per Dollar Spent” by dividing a city’s total services score by its per-capita budget. This index was used to rank the cities from most to least efficient, offering a data-driven look at which city governments are delivering the best value to their residents.

How Did Provo Do It?

According to WalletHub

the reasons for that are that the city is experiencing business growth of around 5.2%, alongside a high school graduation rate of nearly 91%, a combination that signals a strong foundation for the future.

Provo also has the fourth lowest violent crime rate in the nation, 22^nd best in road quality(!), and is a community seeing median household income growing at 8.4% per year.

Canva

All of that added up to being named Best Run City in America.

Read More: Not Everyone Is All In On Provo

Only one other city in the state made the list, and they were more towards the part of the worst run cities, as Salt Lake City came in listed as 99^th best (or 49^th worst) run city.

San Francisco was dead last on the list and would therefore, based on the title of the survey, be the Worst Run City in America.