In 2019 and 2023, I shared studies that measured economic freedom in metropolitan areas.

However, is good policy associated with better outcomes?

Today, let’s look at a new report from WalletHub. This publication assembles a wide range of data (education, public safety, poverty, debt, etc) and then ranks cities based not on policy (think of policies as inputs), but instead grades them on overall performance (akin to the outputs of governance).

Based on that approach, here’s a map showing the best-run cities. As you can see, the top-5 cities are in Utah, New Hampshire, and Idaho. And if you broaden the list to look at the 30-best cities, they’re overwhelmingly in regions more associated with economic rationality – the South, Midwest, and Mountain West.

Interestingly (perhaps surprisingly), no Texas cities made the top 30.

What isn’t a surprise, however, is that none of the nation’s infamously left-wing cities (places such as San Francisco, Detroit, New York City, Minneapolis, Chicago, and Seattle) get good scores.

Indeed, they get bad scores.

Here’s a table showing the top-10 cities. Congrats to Provo.

And here are the 10-worst cities.

As you can see, the left-wing basket cases are well-represented. And, to answer the question in the title of today’s column, the worst of the worst is San Francisco.

For what it’s worth, I think San Francisco will improve over the next few years. And I also think New York City (thanks to its economically illiterate mayor), will take over the bottom position. Though Chicago will provide a lot of competition.