Chattanooga ranked among the worst run cities in America, according to a report released Monday by the online financial web site WalletHub.
Chattanooga was judged to be the fourth worst run city among the 150 biggest U.S. cities, behind only Washington D.C., Gulfport, Mississippi, and San Francisco.
The study compared America's 150 biggest cities to determine the best run and worst run municipalities, based upon how much each city spends per capita, and 35 criteria of the outcomes in each city, including financial stability, education, health, safety, the economy and infrastructure and pollution.
Chattanooga ranked the lowest for its health and safety scores, which measure such factors as life expectancy, infant mortality, crime rates and car accidents. Chattanooga also was below average in its rankings for education and the economy, based upon rates for everything from high school completion, poverty and income. Chattanooga scored slightly above average in the fiscal health of the city, however.
In a similar survey last year, Chattanooga ranked as the 7th worst run city in 2018.
The best run cities, according to the WalletHub analysis, are, in order, Nampa Idaho, Provo Utah, Boise Idaho, Durham North Carolina, and Lexington Kentucky.
All of Tennessee's major cities scored below the average of most U.S. cities. Among the 150 largest U.S. cities, Nashville ranked 100th, Knoxville was 118th, Memphis was 136th and Chattanooga was 147th.
1. Washington D.C.
2. Gulfport, Mississippi
3. San Francisco
4. Chattanooga
5. New York City
6. Detroit
7. Oakland, California
8. Flint, Michigan
9. Hartford, Connecticut
10. Cleveland, Ohio
Source: WalletHub "Quality of Services" score made up of 37 metrics grouped into six service categories, which we then measured against the city's per-capita budget.