10 best cities for July Fourth celebrations

Happy 247^th birthday, America! Across the country, people will be gathering for parades, picnics and, of course, fireworks. According to WalletHub’s 4^th of July facts, 47.9 million people will travel 50+ miles from home for the holiday weekend. They will spend $7.7 billion on food, and eat 150 million hot dogs, maybe trying to beat the current record of 76 hot dogs in 10 minutes, which was set July 4, 2021 by Joey Chestnut at the annual Nathan’s Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest.

But where in the United States is the best place to celebrate America’s birthday? WalletHub has compiled a list of the best cities for celebrating Independence Day.

The site compared the 100 most populated U.S. cities across five key dimensions—Fourth of July celebrations, affordability, attractions and activities, safety and accessibility and Fourth of July weather forecast. Under those dimensions, WalletHub used 21 weighted metrics, and graded those metrics on a 100-point scale. The samples considered only the city proper and excluded cities in the surrounding metro area.

Click through the gallery above to see which U.S. cities throw the best 4^th of July celebrations.