Portland, Maine, Ranks Among America’s Best Cities for Keeping New Year’s Resolutions

Happy New Year, everyone. What is your resolution?

I know, it seems silly to even bring this up. The number of people who actually stick to their resolution is likely fewer than those who have been to the moon. That might be an exaggeration, but I think you get the point.

However, one website out there claims that some regions of the country are actually much better than others, on a collective scale, at keeping those resolutions. And one of those regions might be right here in Maine.

Portland, Maine, is One of the Best New England Cities for Keeping New Year's Resolutions

WalletHub, a personal finance website, recently published its report on the best and worst cities for keeping New Year’s resolutions, and Portland ranked quite well.

Maine’s largest city was named the 32nd best city out of the 182 rated in America for holding onto those resolutions, and also number two in all of New England, just a few slots behind South Burlington, VT, which finished 26th.

Portland finished with a score of 59.83 out of a possible 100 points. The scoring was based on five major categories: Health Resolutions, Financial Resolutions, School & Work Resolutions, Relationship Resolutions, and Bad Habit Resolutions. These categories were further broken down into 57 subcategories to make the analysis as detailed as possible. You can check out the methodology here.

Portland finished in the top 50 in four of the categories, including school and work, relationships, financial, and health. This basically means Portland was consistent in being relatively close to the top, but not excelling in any one category. The best scores were in health and financial, which included factors like healthy eating, gym membership rates, income growth, and a solid job market.

READ MORE: Popular Portland Neighborhood Named Best in Maine for Foodies

Where Portland struggled was in the bad habit category, where the city found itself ranked just 88th. This category included factors like binge drinking rates, drug abuse, number of overdoses, and adults with gambling disorders. It’s not great to see Portland continuing to battle with many of these issues, but it’s also not unexpected.

Overall, it’s good to see Portland scoring well in most of the categories. An active and engaged population is always what a community strives for, and I think we get a good picture of that here. However, there is still clearly much to strive for when we look at the bad habit category.

What's the Best City in America for Keeping New Year's Resolutions?

So, what city reigned supreme? That would be Seattle, WA, which beat out Scottsdale, AZ, for the number one spot.

As for the worst city for holding on to New Year’s resolutions? Congrats to Jackson, MS. Why does it always seem to be a city from Mississippi that comes in last in these things?

You can find the entire list here.