Most Fiscally Healthy Cities in America 2026

Fiscal health varies enormously across U.S. cities. Some maintain healthy reserves, low debt, and fully-funded pensions. Others carry crushing debt loads, depleted reserves, and pension shortfalls that threaten future services. We rank all cities using our Fiscal Health Score — a composite of six financial indicators drawn from Census Bureau data.

Top 25 Fiscally Healthy Cities

Rank	City	State	Score	Grade
1	San Jose	CA	90/100	A
2	Mesa	AZ	90/100	A
3	Omaha	NE	90/100	A
4	Wichita	KS	90/100	A
5	Irvine	CA	90/100	A
6	Chula Vista	CA	90/100	A
7	Reno	NV	90/100	A
8	Fort Wayne	IN	90/100	A
9	Scottsdale	AZ	90/100	A
10	Elk Grove	CA	90/100	A
11	West Valley City	UT	90/100	A
12	Wilmington	NC	90/100	A
13	Davenport	IA	90/100	A
14	Toms River	NJ	90/100	A
15	Waukegan	IL	90/100	A
16	Hawthorne	CA	90/100	A
17	Rapid City	SD	90/100	A
18	Rowlett	TX	90/100	A
19	Gilroy	CA	90/100	A
20	Midwest City	OK	90/100	A
21	Harrisburg	PA	90/100	A
22	Winston-Salem	NC	89/100	A
23	Edmond	OK	89/100	A
24	Santa Fe	NM	89/100	A
25	Missoula	MT	89/100	A

What the Top Cities Have in Common

Analyzing the top 25 reveals several patterns:

Diversified revenue: The healthiest cities do not depend on a single revenue source. They typically have a mix of property taxes, sales taxes, and intergovernmental transfers.
Pension discipline: Top-scoring cities maintain pension funding ratios above 80%, reducing the risk of ballooning annual contributions crowding out services.
Low debt relative to revenue: Healthy cities keep total debt below 2x annual revenue, ensuring they can service obligations without stress.
Growing tax base: Many top performers are in growing metro areas where population and property values are increasing, providing natural revenue growth without rate increases.

The Geographic Pattern

Sun Belt and Mountain West cities dominate the top 25. Fast-growing metro areas benefit from expanding tax bases, newer infrastructure (lower maintenance costs), and fewer legacy pension obligations. Older industrial cities in the Midwest and Northeast face steeper challenges — aging infrastructure, population loss, and pension systems established during more prosperous eras.

For the opposite end of the spectrum, see our analysis of cities with the most debt per capita. For tax burden analysis, see cities with the highest property taxes.

How the Fiscal Health Score Works

The Fiscal Health Score is a 0-100 composite that weights six dimensions:

Budget balance and reserves: 25%
Debt burden (per capita vs. peer median): 20%
Pension funding ratio: 20%
Spending efficiency (per-capita vs. service quality): 15%
Revenue diversity: 10%
Trend direction (3-year trajectory): 10%

Each city is benchmarked against its population peer group. A score of 80+ earns an A, 60-79 a B, and so on. See our full methodology for scoring details.

Frequently Asked Questions

What makes a city fiscally healthy?

Fiscal health is measured by six factors: balanced budgets and adequate reserves (25%), manageable debt burden relative to peers (20%), well-funded pensions (20%), efficient spending per capita (15%), diversified revenue sources (10%), and positive fiscal trajectory over three years (10%).

Which is the most fiscally healthy city in America?

San Jose, CA ranks #1 with a Fiscal Health Score of 90/100 (Grade: A), based on strong budget reserves, manageable debt, and well-funded pensions.

What is a Fiscal Health Score?

The Fiscal Health Score is a proprietary 0-100 composite score (graded A through F) that benchmarks each city against population peers across six fiscal dimensions: budget balance, debt burden, pension funding, spending efficiency, revenue diversity, and trend direction.

About This Data

Fiscal data is from the U.S. Census Bureau Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances and the Lincoln Institute Fiscally Standardized Cities database. Pension data from the Public Plans Database. See our methodology.