Towering above

Dallas ranks No. 14 best city in U.S., says prestigious new report

Dallas towers over the rest.

Photo by Sean Pavone/iStock

According to a new report, Dallas is one of America's best. A new study from Best Cities, powered by Resonance Consultancy, puts Dallas at No. 14 among the best cities in the U.S.

What lifts Dallas to the No. 14 spot? These are some of the factors cited by Best Cities:

Location of more than 10,000 corporate headquarters
Strong showing (No. 2) in the airport connectivity category
Kudos for the soon-to-be-expanded Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center Dallas
Home of the country’s sixth largest LGBTQ+ community
Presence of the 28-block, 68-acre Dallas Arts District

"It’s not only city sloganeering that’s big in Dallas. It’s economic reality," the report says. "'Big Things Happen Here' can refer to any one of investment, population growth, or cultural ascent in The Big D."

Best Cities bases its list of the best U.S. cities on Resonance Consultancy’s combination of statistical performance plus qualitative evaluations by locals and visitors. Those figures are grouped into six main categories. This year’s ranking features 100 U.S. cities. To come up with the ranking, Resonance Consultancy assessed all U.S. metro areas with at least 500,000 residents.

Austin is right behind Dallas, at No. 15, and Houston comes out slightly ahead, at No. 11. Two other Texas cities make the Best Cities list: No. 34 San Antonio and No. 94 McAllen.

Here are some of the individual rankings that contribute to Houston’s 11th-place finish:

No. 4 for restaurants
No. 7 for culture
No. 8 for foreign-born population

“Educated, diverse and hard-working, Houston is America’s stealthy powerhouse on the rise,” Best Cities proclaims.

Best Cities also notes that while Austin grabs much of the best-city attention, “the promise of the Lone Star State drawing Californians and New Yorkers is quietly being fulfilled in Houston.” The website points out that the Houston metro area has gained nearly 300,000 residents in the past year, thanks to both domestic and international migration.

Best Cities praises Austin as “a place that’s incredibly livable. Talk to any entrepreneur leaving Silicon Valley or Seattle and chances are they’ve considered Austin.”

The website points to a number of Austin’s assets, such as:

Growing presence of Fortune 500 headquarters
Comparatively low unemployment rate
Location of the University of Texas’ flagship campus
Status as the Live Music Capital of the World
Home of the annual SXSW gathering

So, which U.S. city tops the rest? That honor goes to New York.

"After a hellish two years, few places on the planet are as ready to relaunch as NYC," they say.

rankings lists

best in the world

6 DFW universities named best in the world on 2026 U.S. News list

The University of Texas at Dallas/Facebook

UT Dallas ranked 7th in Texas and No. 110 nationally.

Six Dallas-Fort Worth universities have been named among the best universities worldwide in U.S. News & World Report's just-released comprehensive list for 2026-2027.

U.S. News' Best Global Universities report ranks more than 2,250 schools based exclusively on their academic research performance and international reputation. Only 275 universities from the U.S. were included in the global ranking, and 21 based in Texas.

Harvard University topped the list for 2026-2027, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University claimed the coveted No. 2 and No. 3 spots worldwide.

Dallas' University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center topped the list of the best local schools, and it ranked as the 117th best university in the world.

Earlier in June, UT Southwestern ranked No. 69 in a separate list of the best universities in the world from the Center for World University Rankings (CWUR), which compared 2,000 schools globally.

Here's how the rest of Dallas-Fort Worth's local institutions ranked:

No. 509 – University of Texas at Dallas
No. 746 – University of North Texas, Denton
No. 884 – University of Texas at Arlington
No. 950 – Southern Methodist University
No. 1,910 – Texas Christian University

In a statement explaining global university trends, the managing editor for Education at U.S. News, LaMont Jones, Ed.D., said schools in the U.S. have continued to rank "disproportionately high" while major universities from other countries in China and South America are starting to catch up.

"The continuing strength of [American university] reputations and academic research are, for the most part, unmatched," he said. "It's why students all over the world flock here to learn."

Top-ranking Texas universities
The University of Texas at Austin ranked No. 1 statewide and No. 56 worldwide, further cementing the university's reputation as the top choice for students seeking a higher education in Texas. CWUR also ranked UT Austin as the 35th best university in the world.

Here's where other Texas universities stand among the top 1,000 in this year's global rankings:

No. 147 – Baylor College of Medicine, Houston
No. 180 – Texas A&M University, College Station
No. 204 – Rice University
No. 301 – University of Texas at San Antonio
No. 330 – University of Texas Health Science Center Houston
No. 393 – University of Houston
No. 454 – Baylor University, Waco
No. 565 – Texas Tech University, Lubbock
No. 605 – University of Texas Medical Branch Galveston

Additionally, five other Texas universities ranked outside the top 1,000: University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (No. 1,160); University of Texas El Paso (No. 1,248); Texas State University in San Marcos (No. 1,531); Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Lubbock (No. 1,878); and Sam Houston State University in Huntsville (No. 2,145).

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