Updated April 2026 · U.S. Census Bureau data
Compare Cities Side by Side
CitySpend compares the financial profiles of more than 800 U.S. cities with 50,000 residents or more, side by side. Each city profile draws from the same federal survey, the U.S. Census Bureau's Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances, so the figures are apples to apples: total expenditure, per-capita spending, revenue mix, debt outstanding, and a composite Fiscal Health Score from 0 to 100. Pick any two cities below to see how their budgets stack up.
Pick Any Two Cities
Enter city names as they appear on CitySpend (e.g. “Los Angeles” not “LA”). State abbreviation optional.
Popular Comparisons
What You'll See in a Comparison
- +Fiscal Health Score and grade (A-F) for both cities
- +Total spending and revenue, in absolute dollars
- +Per-capita spending, debt, and revenue
- +Department-level spending: police, fire, parks, education, roads
- +Revenue source breakdown: property tax, sales tax, fees, transfers
- +Full spending category comparison across 14 functions
- +Verdict: which city spends more, by how much, and where
How City-to-City Comparisons Work
Comparing municipal budgets fairly is harder than it looks. CitySpend normalizes around three rules. First, every city is sourced from the same survey instrument, the Census Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances, so line items align across jurisdictions. Second, we report both absolute dollars and per-capita ratios; the absolute number tells you how big the budget is, the per-capita ratio tells you how that budget plays at the household level. Third, side-by-side pages flag when scope differs: if City A operates its own school district and City B does not, the comparison page calls that out instead of letting an apples-to-oranges number sit unexplained.
For the 150 largest cities, we cross-reference with the Lincoln Institute's Fiscally Standardized Cities database, which folds overlapping county, school-district, and special-district spending into a single "city" total. That standardization is the closest thing to a true apples-to-apples comparison between, say, Boston (which does not run its own schools in the same way) and Houston (which does). For mid-size and smaller cities, raw Census figures are reported with footnotes explaining what is and is not included.
How the Fiscal Health Score Is Calculated
The Fiscal Health Score is intentionally not just a debt ratio or a single budget gap. It rolls six factors into one composite. Budget balance and reserves (25 percent) ask whether the city is running a surplus or eating into rainy-day funds. Debt burden per capita (20 percent) compares outstanding general-obligation and revenue debt against population peers. Pension funding ratio (20 percent) draws from the Public Plans Database, with anything below 80 percent flagged as stressed. Spending efficiency (15 percent), revenue diversity (10 percent), and three-year trend direction (10 percent) round out the score. Read the full methodology for the formulas and weights.
Best practice for nonprofit budget watchdogs comes from the Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA), whose budget award criteria are baked into how we weight the components. The score is most useful as a screening tool: cities scoring an A are not at risk of fiscal distress in the near term, F-scoring cities have multiple warning signs that warrant a deeper read of the audited financial report.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does the city comparison tool work?
Choose two cities and we render their finances side by side using the U.S. Census Bureau's Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances. The output covers total revenue, total expenditure, per-capita spending, debt outstanding, the share of revenue from property tax versus sales tax versus intergovernmental transfers, department-level spending across police, fire, parks, education and roads, and our composite Fiscal Health Score. Both cities must be at least 50,000 in population to appear on CitySpend.
Where does the comparison data come from?
Every figure traces back to U.S. Census Bureau primary data. Spending and revenue come from the Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances; population is sourced from the American Community Survey; payroll counts and average salaries come from the Annual Survey of Public Employment and Payroll (ASPEP). For the 150 largest cities we also incorporate the Lincoln Institute's Fiscally Standardized Cities database, which adjusts for school-district overlap so that side-by-side comparisons account for which services each city actually pays for.
What is the Fiscal Health Score?
The Fiscal Health Score is a 0 to 100 composite that rolls up six factors: budget balance and reserves (25 percent), debt burden per capita versus peer-group medians (20 percent), pension funding ratio (20 percent), spending efficiency (15 percent), revenue diversity (10 percent), and the three-year trend direction (10 percent). Cities are graded A through F. Comparisons account for population peer group, so a 200,000-resident city is benchmarked against other mid-size cities, not against New York or Los Angeles.
Why do per-capita figures vary so much between cities?
Three main reasons. First, scope: some cities operate their own school districts, hospitals, or utilities while others do not, so the same dollar of "education spending" is recorded against the city in some states and against an overlapping district in others. Second, cost of living: salaries, contracted services, and construction in San Francisco run far above costs in Birmingham or Wichita. Third, service mix: a coastal city facing flooding spends on stormwater that a desert city does not. Comparing per-capita totals is most useful within population peer groups and between cities in similar regions.
How current is the data?
The Census Bureau publishes the Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances roughly 18 months after the close of the fiscal year. CitySpend rebuilds its database whenever new survey microdata or the updated Individual Unit File is released. The page footer shows the most recent refresh date. For real-time budget actions, council meeting agendas, and approved-budget documents, link out to the city's official Open Data portal or finance department.
Can I compare more than two cities at once?
The current tool renders a head-to-head two-city comparison. To compare a city against a wider peer group, use the ranking pages, which show all 800+ cities sorted by total per-capita spending, debt per capita, police spending per capita, parks spending per capita, property tax per capita, federal grants per capita, and several other metrics. State pages list every covered city in a single state with grades and headline numbers visible at a glance.
CitySpend compares the financial profiles of more than 800 U.S. cities with 50,000 residents or more, side by side. Each city profile draws from the same federal survey, the U.S. Census Bureau's Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances, so the figures are apples to apples: total expenditure, per-capita spending, revenue mix, debt outstanding, and a composite Fiscal Health Score from 0 to 100. Pick any two cities below to see how their budgets stack up.