Philly rises four spots in national ranking on city parks

Philly’s place on the Trust for Public Land’s “ParkScore” index just took a sweet jump forward, according to a report released Wednesday by the trust.

The city rose to 28 for 2025, four spots over its 2024 score of 32.

The Trust for Public Land, a national nonprofit focused on outdoor space, ranks parks for the 100 most populous U.S. cities each year.

This year, Philly’s boost came because of stronger marks for park access and amenities.

The trust said 95% of city residents live within a 10-minute walk to a park. That’s well above the national average of 76%.

The city received above-average scores for amenities, and ranks among the top 10 nationally for splash pads and other water features. It also received high marks for recreation and availability of senior centers.

But the trust attributed the city’s rise largely to increased spending on parks. The city spent $112 per person on its park system in 2025, an increase from $86 last year. The national average is $133.

Will Klein, the trust’s research director, called the index “a friendly competition.”

“You’re scored relative to how you’re doing relative to your peers,” Klein said. “Any time you’re moving up, that’s a good thing and reflects well on the direction of the city park system.”

Philly’s park system contains about 9,200 acres of parks. That includes Fairmount and Wissahickon Valley Parks, boasting about 2,000 acres each.

But most of the city’s parks are much smaller and embedded in neighborhoods. In all, Philadelphia has 400 neighborhood parks, recreation centers, and libraries.

Most of the park systems with the highest scores tend to be in the Midwest or West where land is ample. Washington, D.C., came in first, but 90% of its park space is funded by the federal government. Irvine, Calif.; Minneapolis; and Cincinnati, respectively, were the next highest ranked.

Philly’s score was limited by below-average marks for park acreage. The median local park measures 3.1 acres, below the national median of 5.4 acres.

Owen Franklin, Pennsylvania state director for the Trust for Public Land, who lives in Philadelphia, said the city has little available land to turn into new parks.

Pittsburgh, however, was able to add the 660-acre Hays Woods to its park system in 2023, thus increasing its index score.

Franklin said Philly boasts an impressive number of recreation centers — more than twice the national average per capita. Despite the constraints on upkeep, the city has an “amazing system of great bones in our neighborhoods” when it comes to recreational facilities, Franklin said.

The city’s rec centers are a bright spot, Franklin said.

Though those facilities tend to be small, they “punch above their weight class,” Franklin said, and are well distributed throughout neighborhoods.

Franklin noted that Philadelphia, as the poorest big city in the U.S., has limited funds compared with other cities.

Susan Slawson, Philadelphia’s parks and recreation commissioner, credits Mayor Cherelle L. Parker’s vision for a “clean and green” city as one reason the city’s score moved up. But she takes the index with a grain of salt.

“We don’t keep score,” Slawson said. “We stay committed.”

The mayor’s restructuring of city government has allowed for more staff, Slawson said.

The administration, she said, is focused on building “a more equitable, welcoming, and well-maintained park system” for residents and visitors.

In recent years, the city park system has gotten a huge boost from the Rebuild program, started under Parker’s predecessor, Mayor Jim Kenney. Rebuild is funded through the Philadelphia beverage tax, bonds, the city, and a $100 million commitment by the William Penn Foundation.

A single Rebuild project can pour millions of dollars into a single park.

For example, the city hosted the reopening of the Lawrence E. Murphy Recreation Center in South Philadelphia on Wednesday.

The $7.5 million renovation added synthetic turf athletic fields, baseball and softball field upgrades, lighting, team benches, bleachers, outdoor basketball courts, and other major improvements.

Federal budget cuts have led to uncertainty for parks officials nationwide. Philadelphia, like many cities, depends on federal money to fund a range of programs across many departments, including its parks.

Franklin, of the Trust for Public Land, said park funding enjoys strong bipartisan support.

“We’ve done some research that shows that people of all political stripes are reporting that when they’re in parks, they’re connecting to people that they otherwise wouldn’t have opportunity to connect to,” Franklin said. ”And that’s reported by Democrats and Republicans at very high levels.”