Given that many people with pets consider their furry (or scaly, feathery, etc.) friends part of their family, it makes sense that they’d include their pet when making future plans—like if they’re moving to a new city. But not all urban areas are equally accommodating. Here are the most and least pet-friendly cities in the U.S., according to a report from Forbes Advisor.
What makes a city ‘pet-friendly’?
To figure out which urban areas made the cut, Forbes Advisor compared the 91 most populated cities that had data available across 13 metrics spanning these four key categories:
Dog veterinary cost
Cat veterinary cost
Veterinary access
Pet-friendly spaces
Points were awarded for each of the metrics, and then tallied for each city. A perfect score is 100 points.
The most pet-friendly cities in the U.S.
When the points were tallied, these cities came out on top:
1. Tucson, Arizona
Score: 100 out of 100
2. Raleigh, North Carolina
Score: 93.49 out of 100
3. Nashville, Tennessee
Score: 93.14 out of 100
4. Wichita, Kansas
Score: 91.46 out of 100
5. Cincinnati, Ohio
Score: 91.45 out of 100
6. Plano, Texas
Score: 90.83 out of 100
7. Albuquerque, New Mexico
Score: 90.62 out of 100
8. Kansas City, Missouri
Score: 89.58 out of 100
9. Louisville, Kentucky
Score: 89.30 out of 100
10. Glendale, Arizona
Score: 88.99 out of 100
The least pet-friendly cities in the U.S.
We’ve seen the best, now let’s take a look at which cities landed at the bottom of the rankings:
1. Los Angeles, California
Score: 0 out of 100
2. New York City, New York
Score: 0.41 out of 100
3. San Jose, California
Score: 3.70 out of 100
4. San Francisco, California
Score: 6.83 out of 100
5. Boston, Massachusetts
Score: 12.71 out of 100
6. Newark, New Jersey
Score: 12.77 out of 100
7. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Score: 13.88 out of 100
8. Fresno, California
Score: 16.75 out of 100
9. Jersey City, New Jersey
Score: 17.43 out of 100
10. Baltimore, Maryland
Score: 18.43 out of 100
Check out the full report for additional details.