St. Louis ranked among nation’s most fun cities

Just months after WalletHub ranked St. Louis among the top 10 most stressed cities in the nation, a new poll from the financial services website boasts that we have more fun here than denizens of any other Missouri city—and larger cities, such as Boston, Nashville, and Washington, D.C.

WalletHub looked at 182 cities across three areas: entertainment and recreation, nightlife and parties, and cost. It determined 65 relevant metrics, graded them on a 100-point scale, calculated the weighted average for each city across all of the metrics, and used that to determine the final score. It looked at things like cost of living and sports “fan-friendliness,” as well as the number of restaurants, performing arts theaters, and hiking trails per capita.

St. Louis cracked the top 20, coming in at number 19. We had an entertainment and recreation ranking of 30 and a nightlife ranking of 17. Elsewhere in Missouri, Kansas City ranked 53rd in fun and Springfield 65th. St. Louis is also more fun, the poll says, than Tampa, Florida (though only slightly—it’s number 20); Nashville, Tennessee (31); and Boston (52). The least fun city? Pearl City, Hawaii. The most? Surprising few, it’s Las Vegas. Orlando, New York City, Atlanta, and Miami took spots two through five.

And yes, coming in at number six, Chicago did rank higher in fun than St. Louis. It’s worth noting, though, that it also ranked 147th in cost, way more expensive than St. Louis. (We were 11.)

Here are the rankings from WalletHub:

As for the paradox of being among both the most stressed and most fun cities in the U.S.? Maybe there’s something to that “work hard, play hard” saying.