star-spangled celebration

Houston is the 15th best U.S. city to celebrate Independence Day

Texans love to celebrate their independence.

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Though the saying goes, "Everything is bigger in Texas," that might not necessarily be true about the state's Fourth of July celebrations. A new report by personal finance website WalletHub says there are 14 U.S. cities that do it better than Houston.

Despite earning high recognition for having the second most affordable means to celebrate in the city (including the third cheapest hotels in the nation), Houston only came in at No. 15 in WalletHub's "Best and Worst Places for 4th of July Celebrations."

The report compares the 100 biggest cities in the nation across 18 metrics like affordability, variety of attractions and activities on July 4th, weather favorability, and safety.

Houston's worst category was safety (No. 93), with additional room for improvement on the variety of recreational activities surrounding the Independence Day holiday (No. 30). One category that (unfortunately) can't be improved is the weather, where the city ranked No. 33.

Dallas (No. 8) and San Antonio (No. 9) were the only Texas cities to rank higher than Houston in the overall report, while Austin came in at No. 21. That may come as a surprise to some who live in the capital city.

California cities dominate the top 10, with Los Angeles and San Francisco taking the top two spots, respectively, and San Diego coming in at No. 6. The remaining cities that round out the top 10 are New York City (No. 3), Las Vegas (No. 4), Seattle (No. 5), San Diego (No. 6), Orlando (No. 7), and Milwaukee (No. 10).

Here's a look at how other Texas cities stacked up:

No. 26 – Plano
No. 31 – El Paso
No. 29 – Fort Worth
No. 50 – Irving
No. 51 – Arlington
No. 69 – Laredo
No. 82 – Lubbock
No. 90 – Garland

Despite Houston's ranking, Texans still love to celebrate their independence (or simply take advantage of having a random day of the week off) by hosting cookouts, checking out fun parades, and launching a ton of fireworks from their backyards. Even the National Retail Federation predicts Americans will spend $9.5 billion on food for the Independence Day holiday. One report surely won't put a damper on the festivities.

The full report can be found on wallethub.com.

WalletHub reports independence day 4th of july holiday houston

H-Town rising

Houston leaps back into top 50 'World's Best Cities' list for 2025

Photo by Adrian Newell on Unsplash

Houston made a big leap back into the top 50, ranking No. 40, after previously plummeting into No. 72 last year.

Lively Houston has regained its rightful place among the top 50 best cities in the world, according to a prestigious new report by Resonance Consultancy.

The Canada-based real estate and tourism marketing advisors ranked Houston the 40th best city worldwide for 2025 in its annual "World's Best Cities" list.

The report quantifies the relative qualities of livability, "lovability," and prosperity for the world's top 100 cities with metropolitan populations of 1 million or more. New to the 10th anniversary edition, Resonance partnered with global market researchers Ipsos to include perception-based data into the rankings, surveying over 22,000 people in 30 countries worldwide to determine "the most desirable places to visit, live or work."

Houston made a major rebound after plummeting to No. 73 in last year's report. In 2022, Houston ranked No. 42.

Resonance refers to its previous "World's Best Cities" reports and its 2024 "America's Best Cities" list – which ranked Houston in the top 10 – when explaining the Bayou City's successes. The report praised Houston's vast cultural diversity and placed a great focus on its economic prosperity, even going so far as to suggest Houston residents make more money "and can sock more away."

"...[W]here America’s fourth-largest city truly takes off is in its economic heft and wealth, ranking No. 9 globally for GDP per Capita and No. 14 for Fortune 500 companies in town," the report said. "All that rolls up into an overall Prosperity index ranking of No. 36, which is even more impressive given the No. 14-ranked Price-to Income Ratio [of the city]."

Elsewhere in Texas, Austin and Dallas also earned spots on the World's Best Cities list for 2025, but only one made a similar rebound from the previous year's rankings. Dallas moved up from No. 66 in last year's report to its current rank as No. 55. Meanwhile, Austin took its first tumble out of the 43rd spot (which it had occupied for two years straight) and now ranks No. 53.

London held onto its crown as the No. 1 best city in the world for 2025, followed by New York (No. 2), Paris (No. 3), Tokyo (No. 4), and Singapore (No. 5).

star-spangled celebration

Houston is the 15th best U.S. city to celebrate Independence Day

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H-Town rising

Houston leaps back into top 50 'World's Best Cities' list for 2025

CultureMap Emails Are Awesome
Get Houston intel delivered daily.