Indiana City Earns Top 10 Spot Among America’s Best-Run Cities

It has become way too easy to criticize the people running our communities. Whether it's a teacher, a coach, an umpire, or an elected official, someone always seems to have a better idea. But managing a city is no small task. City leaders have to balance budgets, maintain roads and infrastructure, support public safety, encourage economic growth, and make decisions that impact thousands of residents every single day. It's a challenging job, and when a city gets recognized for doing it well, it's worth celebrating.

That's exactly what's happening in one Hoosier city.

Fort Wayne Leads Indiana in National Rankings

A new report from WalletHub has ranked the Best and Worst-Run Cities in America for 2026, and Fort Wayne earned a 7th-place finish out of 148 of the nation's largest cities. That puts the Summit City among the top 10 best-run cities in the entire country and makes it the highest-ranked city in Indiana.

WalletHub's rankings aren't based on just one factor. Instead, researchers evaluated cities across six major categories that help determine how effectively local governments serve their residents: financial stability, education, health, safety, economy, and infrastructure and pollution. The goal was to compare the quality of city services with the amount of money being spent to provide them.

How Other Indiana Cities Compared

While Fort Wayne received high marks, two other Indiana cities also appeared in the rankings with mixed results. Indianapolis finished in 48th place, putting it comfortably in the top third of the list. Gary, however, ranked 97th, with WalletHub noting challenges including one of the nation's highest unemployment rates, the lowest median household income among the cities studied, and the second-highest poverty rate.

Fort Wayne's strong showing is another reminder that Indiana communities continue to earn national recognition for smart planning and effective leadership. For Hoosiers, it's encouraging to see one of our own cities setting the standard for how local government can successfully serve its residents.

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You can see the FULL REPORT for all the information, and/or scroll over the map below to see the rest of the rankings.