Study Scores American Cities Based on Cleanliness

A fascinating new study from OxiFresh shows us that cities can be scored and analyzed on how clean they are. Cleanliness may seem subjective, but the team took a brilliant approach to quantifying and scoring cities with a method that issued cities a score out of 100 in seven categories.

They used these seven areas to form their scoring system:

• Population density: number of people per square mile
• Rodents: Percentage of homes with signs of mouse and rat infestations
• Cockroaches: Percentage of housing units with cockroach infestations
• Vandalism: Percentage of homes without vandalism and abandoned buildings in a half-block radius
• Litter: Percent of homes without litter surrounding the property within a half-block radius
• Air quality: Number of days in 2024 that scored “Good” or higher on the Air Quality Index
• Tap water quality: Average number of contaminants in the municipal drinking water

The strength of this graphic lies in the details. We can see exactly how each of the 25 cities analyzed scored so that we can consider them individually and as part of a whole.

Click below to zoom.

The team’s scoring system determined that these cities are the cleanest:

1. Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, Oregon/Washington
2. Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, Washington
3. Rochester, New York
4. Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, Michigan
5. Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, Minnesota/Wisconsin
6. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
7. Richmond, Virginia
8. Denver-Aurora-Centennial, Colorado
9. Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler, Arizona
10. Kansas City, Missouri/Kansas

And at the bottom of the list, we find these ten cities:

1. New York-Newark-Jersey City, New York/New Jersey
2. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, California
3. Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, Pennsylvania/New Jersey/Delaware/Maryland
4. Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands, Texas
5. Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, Washington DC/Virginia/Maryland/West Virginia
6. Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, Illinois/Indiana
7. Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas
8. Birmingham, Alabama
9. Cincinnati, Ohio/Kentucky/Indiana
10. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

We can see which factors the team considered the strongest indicator of whether or not a city is clean. For example, waste management obviously has a huge influence on a city’s cleanliness. The team included population density on the list because higher populations produce more garbage and may strain the local waste management system. However, even large cities can manage waste effectively with the right investments. The Portland metro area is the cleanest on the list, and it has made a strong investment in robust recycling and waste removal, which pays off. The city’s clean streets and parks lead to lower pollution levels and fewer rodents and insects, all adding to the city’s excellent cleanliness score.

The lowest scorer, the New York City metro area, has struggled with trash removal for decades. The city is full of back alleys that tend to collect rubbish, grime, and pests. These nests of trash and garbage lead to pollution, unpleasant smells, and the city’s famous rat infestation. As the biggest metro area in the country, though, the city has a lot of challenges to overcome to get cleaner.

The way this map and graphic present information lets us draw conclusions and ask new questions. How did your city score? Do you agree with the team’s methodology?