Urban Environment Report: How Does Your City Rank?

HUMAN & PUBLIC HEALTH, VPI Rank   All cities have vulnerable populations. However, in some U.S. cities the concentration of citizens at risk is of particular concern. Earth Day Network’s Vulnerable Population Index (EDN VPI) is a measure suggesting what portion of a city's population may have greater sensitivity or susceptibility to environmental change. In the list below city Subject Area scores are weighted by the city’s VPI, yielding a VPI Score and Rank from best to worst.

VPI Rank (1 is best, 72 is worst) City, State VPI Score (1 is best, 10 is worst) 1 Seattle, WA 2.8 2 Boise*, ID 2.9 2 Colorado Springs, CO 2.9 2 Minneapolis, MN 2.9 5 Denver, CO 3.0 5 Des Moines*, IA 3.0 5 Fargo*, ND 3.0 8 Boston, MA 3.1 8 Mesa, AZ 3.1 10 Burlington*, VT 3.2 10 Manchester*, NH 3.2 10 Salt Lake City*, UT 3.2 13 Charlotte, NC 3.3 13 Honolulu, HI 3.3 13 Phoenix, AZ 3.3 13 Sioux Falls*, SD 3.3 13 Virginia Beach, VA 3.3 18 Omaha, NE 3.4 18 Portland, OR 3.4 20 Wichita, KS (3.4) 21 Anchorage, AK 3.5 22 Arlington, TX 3.6 22 Austin, TX 3.6 22 Columbus, OH 3.6 22 New York City, NY 3.6 22 Washington, DC 3.6 27 Billings*, MT 3.7 27 Chicago, IL 3.7 27 Milwaukee, WI 3.7 27 Philadelphia, PA 3.7 27 Portland*, ME 3.7 32 Cheyenne*, WY (3.7) 32 Las Vegas, NV (3.7) 34 Lexington, KY 3.8 34 Long Beach, CA 3.8 34 Los Angeles, CA 3.8 34 San Diego, CA 3.8 34 San Jose, CA 3.8 39 Albuquerque, NM 3.9 39 Bridgeport*, CT 3.9 39 Jacksonville, FL 3.9 39 Kansas City, MO 3.9 39 Newark, NJ 3.9 39 Tucson, AZ 3.9 39 Wilmington*, DE 3.9 46 Atlanta, GA 4.0 46 Fort Worth, TX 4.0 46 Indianapolis, IN 4.0 49 Nashville-Davidson, TN 4.1 49 Oakland, CA 4.1 49 Sacramento, CA 4.1 49 San Antonio, TX 4.1 49 San Francisco, CA 4.1 49 Tulsa, OK 4.1 55 Fresno, CA 4.2 55 Memphis, TN 4.2 55 Oklahoma City, OK 4.2 55 Providence*, RI 4.2 59 Baltimore City, MD 4.3 59 Columbia*, SC 4.3 59 Dallas, TX 4.3 59 Houston, TX 4.3 59 Little Rock*, AR 4.3 64 Jackson*, MS 4.4 65 El Paso, TX 4.7 65 Louisville-Jefferson County*, KY 4.7 67 Birmingham*, AL 4.8 67 Cleveland, OH 4.8 69 New Orleans, LA 4.9 70 Charleston*, WV 5.0 70 Detroit, MI 5.0 72 Miami, FL 5.7 Note: • All rank information is out of 72 cities, though not all cities may have scores/data in every category.    1 is the 'best' (least polluting, most educated, etc) and 72 is the 'worst'. • Scores in parenthesis indicate partial scores, e.g. at least one scored indicator was not available    or reported for this city. • Use of the asterisk (*) after the city name indicates year 2000 data was used in instances where    2005 or 2004 Census data was not available.