top of the line

Dallas carves out spot on list of America's top 20 best cities

It's a solid ranking for Dallas.

Photo by R K on Unsplash

Dallas is earning praise for its prosperity, lovability, and livability in a prestigious new report by Canada-based real estate and tourism marketing advisors Resonance Consultancy.

The annual "America's Best Cities" report ranks qualities like cultural diversity and economic prosperity for U.S. cities with metropolitan populations of 500,000 or more. These top 100 cities are "the engines of their regional and national economies and, importantly, the global economy," according to the report.

Dallas ranked No. 16 on the list. New York City (No. 1), Chicago (No. 2), and Los Angeles (No. 3) claimed the coveted top three spots.

Resonance refers to its 2023 report of the "World's Best Cities" when describing Dallas' achievements, specifically reiterating how the city's cultural footprint has substantially improved over time with the growth of its arts institutions like the Dallas Museum of Art, the Crow Museum of Asian Art, various theaters, and opera venues. The report also reminds that Dallas is home to the sixth-largest LGBTQIA+ community.

Two additional standout factors in the report were Dallas' reputation for its strong economy and job market (driven by the multiple major employers recently hailed the best companies to work for by U.S. News and World Report), combined with "connectivity" advantages from the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport.

"Home to more than 10,000 corporate headquarters — the largest concentration in the U.S. — and ranking No. 4 in the nation for Fortune 500 companies in town, [Dallas] is easy to get to," the report said. "Dallas Fort Worth International Airport tops our Airport Connectivity subcategory, with a planned $3-billion Terminal F project possibly back on the table, given DFW’s rebound of almost 82 million passengers in 2023 — making it the third-busiest airport on earth."

Continuing with Dallas' major transportation projects, the report highlighted the new 2.5 million square foot convention center, and the rebuilding of a major highway through the city.

"[2028] should see the trenching of the city’s car-worshiping Interstate 345 that cut off Black neighborhoods when it was built in the early 1970s," the report restated.

The only city in Texas to make the top 10 was Houston, which came in at No. 10. Austin beat Dallas by one point, coming in at No. 15. San Antonio ranked at No. 32.

The top 10 best American cities, according to Resonance Consultancy, are:

No. 1 – New York, New York
No. 2 – Chicago, Illinois
No. 3 – Los Angeles, California
No. 4 – Miami, Florida
No. 5 – Las Vegas, Nevada
No. 6 – San Francisco, California
No. 7 – Boston, Massachusetts
No. 8 – Washington, D.C.
No. 9 – Seattle, Washington
No. 10 – Houston, Texas

The full list of cities and the report's methodology can be found on worldsbestcities.com.

houston austin dallas san antonio best cities rankings report

working hard

Texas clocks in as one of America's 10 hardest working states for 2026

Photo by Greeshma Gangadharan on Unsplash

Texas has been one of the top 10 hardest-working states in the country for almost a decade.

Texans pride themselves on being industrious, and a new report has confirmed Texas as one of the 10 most hardworking states in America in 2026.

The Lone Star State claimed the No. 7 spot this year in a slight dip from its 2025 ranking, where it appeared in the top five. Texas last ranked 7th in 2024, but the state has consistently appeared among the top 10 for nearly a decade.

WalletHub determined the rankings after analyzing 10 "direct" and "indirect" work factors across all 50 states, and then graded each metric on a 100-point scale, where a score of 100 signified the "hardest working." Analysts then examined each state’s weighted average across all metrics to calculate its overall score and used the resulting scores to rank-order the states.

There was only a 10.32-point difference between Texas and South Dakota, who claimed the top spot as America's hardest working state in 2026 with a score of 64.59 out of a possible 100 points.

Texas ranked 6th nationally in the "direct" work factors category, which examined the following six metrics:

The state's average workweek hours.
Employment rates.
The share of households where no adults work.
The share of workers leaving vacation time unused.
The share of "engaged" workers — those that are "involved in, enthusiastic about, and committed to their work and workplace," as defined by Gallup.
The rate of "idle youth" — individuals aged 18-24 who are not currently enrolled in school, not working, and have no degree beyond a high school diploma or GED.

Texas ties with Louisiana for the second highest average workweek hours nationwide, with Alaska topping the list with the No. 1 longest workweeks in America. Alaska is the only state where workers clock in more than 40 hours per week at their jobs, with WalletHub reporting Alaskans work 41.4 hours on average weekly.

In the "indirect" work factors category — which encompassed workers' average commute times, the share of workers with multiple jobs, annual volunteer hours per resident, and the average leisure time spent per day — Texas ranked 36th nationwide.

Here's how WalletHub ranked Texas in three individual metrics:

No. 10 – Average commute times
No. 20 – Average leisure time spent per day
No. 30 – Employment rates

According to the World Economic Forum, Americans clock in about 1,800 hours at work per year on average, which is 468 more hours per year than workers in Germany. And many are leaving vacation time on the table, WalletHub says.

"Even when given the chance to take time off, many Americans won’t, as nearly half of workers don't expect to use all of their allotted vacation days," the report said. "It is possible to work hard without overdoing it, though. Hard work is key to success, and the residents of some states understand that better than others."

Source: WalletHub

The top 10 hardest working states in America in 2026 are:

No. 1 – South Dakota
No. 2 – North Dakota
No. 3 – Alaska
No. 4 – Hawaii
No. 5 – Wyoming
No. 6 – Nebraska
No. 7 – Texas
No. 8 – New Hampshire
No. 9 – Tennessee
No. 10 – Georgia

texas reports labor day wallethub