The City of Pittsburgh often touts its extensive parks system to prospective residents and visitors — the mostly wooded Frick, Riverview and Hays Woods parks; Schenley Park, with its athletic facilities, skating rink, pool and other amenities; Emerald View Park atop Mount Washington; and the popular walking path around the reservoir at Highland Park. In fact, there are 239 parks within the city borders.

Now a national organization has ranked Pittsburgh City Parks at No. 15 among the 100 top cities in 2025. That’s a leap of 24 points from just 2016 and 2017, when the city’s parks ranked at No. 39. Where it ranks highest is the percentage of residents who live within a 10-minute walk of a park — 94%, says Catherine Qureshi, president and CEO of the nonprofit Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy.

“That was very special for us,” she says.

Where it rated a little lower was the percentage of city land dedicated to parks — 12%, compared to the 21% of Washington D.C., which topped the ranking by Trust Public Land, a 53-year-old nonprofit based in Los Angeles.

The Trust Public Land annually evaluates each park on a number of categories: what percentage of residents live within a 10-minute walk from a park, what percentage of a city’s total land is dedicated to public parks, how much financial support is provided, types of amenities, number of dog parks, etc.

In addition to Washington D.C., the Top 10 cities included Irvine, CA; Minneapolis, MN; Cincinnati, OH; St. Paul, MN; San Francisco, CA; Arlington, VA; Seattle, WA; Portland, OR; and Denver, CO.