Philly Ranked 4th Most Walkable U.S. City

Philadelphia is the fourth most walkable large city in the country, according to Walk Score (a company that produces the “go-to metric for walkable cities,” says urban theorist Richard Florida). That’s the same Walk Score ranking Philly had last year.

It’s no surprise that parts of Center City, as well as Bella Vista and Fishtown, were named among the Philly’s most walkable neighborhoods. The rankings are based on walking routes, the friendliness of pedestrians, and other metrics.

Is Philadelphia’s walkability helping it attract millennials (and could it bring in even more)?

FiveThirtyEight reported last month that recent data indicates that millennials may be falling out of love with cities:

According to U.S. Census Bureau data released this week, 529,000 Americans ages 25 to 29 moved from cities out to the suburbs in 2014; only 426,000 moved in the other direction. Among younger millennials, those in their early 20s, the trend was even starker: 721,000 moved out of the city, compared with 554,000 who moved in.

It might be too soon to declare that a trend, but it bears watching. What does walkability have to do with it? A survey of 800 young people by the Global Strategy Group found that respondents preferred locations that are walkable and have high-quality transportation options.

And as Citified pointed out last week, Philadelphia is something of an outlier when it comes to recent millennial migration patterns, and walkability is likely a factor:

The number of young people moving into the city from other counties (aged 18-34) grew by seven percent between 2010 and 2012, compared to the three years prior. And the amount of millennials moving in from other states grew by eight percent over that span.

Just one more reason to come up with some new ideas for fixing the city’s busted sidewalks.

New York, San Francisco, Boston and Miami (yes, Miami) were also among the top five most walkable big cities in Walk Score’s rankings.