New List Ranks Philly Among Best Cities For St. Patrick's Day Celebrations
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Philadelphia ranks among the best cities for St. Patrick's Day celebrations, according to a new list released Wednesday.
The personal finance website WalletHub ranks Philly fourth on their list of 2016's Best & Worst Cities for St. Patrick's Day Celebrations.
According to the website, in order to identify the best cities for celebrating St. Patrick's Day, WalletHub's analysts compared the 100 most populated cities across four key dimensions: 1) St. Patrick's Day Traditions, 2) Costs, 3) Safety & Accessibility and 4) St. Patrick's Day Weather.
First, they compiled 17 relevant metrics, ranging from "number of Irish pubs and restaurants per capita" to "lowest price for a three-star hotel on St. Patrick's Day" to "weather forecast" for the holiday. Each metric was given a value between 0 and 100, where in 100 is the best value for that metric and 0 is the worst. WalletHub says they calculated the overall score for each city using the weighted average across all metrics and ranked them accordingly.
"Philadelphia ranked 4th overall - 11th for the St. Patrick's Day Traditions key dimension, 29th for Costs, 6th for Safety & Accessibility and 7th for St. Patrick's Day Weather," said WalletHub analyst, Jill Gonzalez.
"The city has a strong St. Patrick's day tradition, celebrating it for 245 years now - the third longest green streak in the country. Philadelphia also has a large Irish population at almost 12 percent, ranking 15th out of the 100 cities studied. It's not surprising then, that it also has an abundance of Irish Pubs and restaurants," said Gonzalez.
Pittsburgh, Pa. placed fifth on the list.
Boston, Massachusetts took the top spot at No. 1, followed by Buffalo, New York at No. 2 and Omaha, Nebraska ranking No. 3.
For WalletHub's full report, click here.
What are your thoughts on the rankings? Weigh in on Facebook and Twitter.
