20 American cities with the best entertainment for your money

The personal finance website, WalletHub, ranked 182 US cities for their "entertainment" factor, comparing entertainment, leisure and nightlife options to local costs.

Having fun is not a joke when it comes to household budgets. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average American spent $ 3,226 in entertainment in 2018, up 0.07% from 2017. Between 2016 and 2017, the growth in spending on entertainment has exploded, from $ 2,913 to $ 3,203.

WalletHub looked at 66 indicators to measure how much people enjoy in urban areas. The study looked at the 150 largest cities in the United States and at least two of the largest in each state.

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"This study incorporates the cost of living and the price of tickets to rank the most fun and economical cities," said Jill Gonzalez, an analyst at WalletHub. "A fun city is a city determined by its options, accessibility and profitability in terms of entertainment, recreation, parties and nightlife."

Some cities, like New York, are so much fun that they rank among the best despite extremely high local prices. The Big Apple, for example, boasts the largest number of restaurants and playgrounds "per square root of the population," according to WalletHub, at 7,5023 and 0,6241 respectively. (Click here to see the methodology.)

That's more than 30 times the number of restaurants in Peoria, Arizona – the US city with the fewest restaurants, at 0.2454, and 19 times more playgrounds than Hialeah, Florida, which has less (0.0328). Results like those of New York ranked third in the list of the most fun cities despite its poor ranking – last place, with 182 out of 182 – for profitability. (Santa Rosa, California, Juneau, Alaska, Boston, and Yonkers, New York, rank among the most expensive cities in the city that never sleeps.)

Among the other conclusions:

• Beer: Oklahoma City claims the cheapest six pack of beer, at $ 7.24 on average, which is 1.6 times cheaper than the price in New York ($ 11.78).
• Dance Clubs: San Francisco has the largest number of dance clubs, 84 times more than Plano, Texas, which has the least.
• festivals: Honolulu, San Francisco, New Orleans and Tampa, Florida, are tied for the largest number of festivals per capita. Laredo, Texas has the least.
• Movie Tickets: Port St. Lucie, Florida, enjoys the lowest movie ticket prices, at $ 6.63, or 2.3 times cheaper than in Los Angeles, the country's highest price at 15, USD 57 per person
• Access to the park: San Francisco and Boston offer the highest level of access to the park within walking distance, 100% of people with access to green spaces within walking distance. It's almost three times more than in Jacksonville, Florida, where only 35% of people can walk to a park.

So where can you find the most fun for your funds? Here are the top 20 cities on the WalletHub list, starting with Sin City: