The Most Boring Cities in America

It’s not hard to find people talking about the cities that got it going on in the U.S. — all the places bursting with vibrant attractions, bustling streets, and no end in sight of things to do. What you don’t often see reported in the news but hear people talk about all the time are the cities that struggle to keep people entertained.

Have you ever said, “There’s just nothing to do here?” about a place you vacationed or maybe even where you live? And did you find yourself playing Klondike or FreeCell in those moments out of boredom? Read on because this validating piece is for you.

In Solitaired’s latest analysis, we flipped the narrative and crunched the numbers on over a quarter million Google Maps listings to find the most boring cities in America. These places offer the fewest things to do per capita or have little variety in your leisure and entertainment options. From large, sprawling metropolises to small, cozy cities, we reveal which cities are falling behind in the race to provide endless things to do.

Key Takeaways

• North Las Vegas, NV, is the most boring city in the U.S. because it has the fewest things to do per capita.
• San Jose, CA, Fort Worth, TX, and Columbus, OH, are midsize cities with the fewest things to do per capita.
• Mesa, AZ, is the midsize city with the least education and learning locations per capita.
• Detroit is the midsize city with the least dining and food locations per capita.

The U.S. Cities with the Fewest Things to Do

Small cities will, naturally, have far less to do than large urban centers. To avoid unfairly comparing large and small cities, we sorted them into weight classes using the most recent population statistics. Then, we computed the number of things to do per capita. This analysis allows us to fairly declare the most boring cities within their respective weight classes.

North Las Vegas, NV, lands #1 on the list of the most boring small cities in America. While it may be close to Las Vegas, known for its endless options of things to do, North Las Vegas, NV, is a desert of entertainment. With just 22 things to do per 10,000 residents, the city not only lands #1 as the most boring small city in our analysis but tops the entire study as the city with the least things to do per capita overall, making it the most boring city in America.

Next on the list of the most boring small cities are Santa Clarita, CA, and Chula Vista, CA, with only 26 and 33 activities per 10,000 residents, respectively. In fact, California cities make regular appearances in our rankings of the most boring cities. Of the top 30 most boring small U.S. cities, California towns make the list 11 times.

However, Santa Clarita, CA, Chula Vista, CA, and many California cities on our list are close to large towns widely known for their plethora of activities. For example, Santa Clarita is one hour from Los Angeles, and Chula Vista is 20 to 30 minutes from downtown San Diego. Many of the most boring cities in America are suburban cities close to major cities that draw in crowds for their many options of things to do.

California’s midsize cities fare better, with only 4 in the top 25 most boring. However, the #1 most boring midsize U.S. city is San Jose, CA. Although it’s home to San Jose State University, is part of Silicon Valley, and is an hour from San Francisco, the city only has 3,365 different things to do, which is 33 activities per 10,000 residents.

Close behind are Fort Worth, TX, and Columbus, OH, with 35 and 38 things to do per capita, respectively. Texas also has many cities in the final rankings of boring U.S. towns. This state tends to have more cities that dominate the midsize boring towns, as opposed to California, which takes the crown for the most boring small-sized cities. In the top 25 for boring midsize cities, Texas takes the crown by occupying 20% of the list.

The Cities with the Least Variety of Things to Do

Having a lot of activities per capita can signal that a city has lots to do. However, if all of those things to do are essentially in the same category, then that city lacks variety, which can make it more boring than it may first appear. This is why, for the second part of our analysis, we used the 715 different Google location categories across the 283,710 things to do that we found in the 94 cities in our analysis to statistically measure the full variety of things to do in each city.

When we look at the cities with this variety lens, we find that Laredo, TX, emerges as the small city with the least variety of things to do. The city has 179 unique things to do and, according to our analysis based on the Shannon Entropy diversity measure, has few options in each category of unique things to do.

To further illustrate this concept, North Las Vegas, NV, with 133 unique things to do, lands the #2 spot for small cities with the least variety of things to do. Even though it has fewer total unique things to do than Laredo, TX, it has more individual options within each category of unique things to do. Our analysis calculates not just the total number of unique things to do per city but the spread of each category, offering a far more nuanced approach to this analysis.

A locale in Texas also tops the list of midsize cities with the least variety of things to do. With a total of 266 unique things to do, El Paso, TX, lands the top spot. Close behind are Detroit and Fresno, CA, each with 256 unique things to do. However, Fresno has slightly more options within each category, so Detroit takes the #2 spot as the midsize city with the least variety of things to do.

The Most Boring Cities by Activity Type

Certain cities are known for being a hub for specific activities. Las Vegas, Miami Beach, and New York are all known for their nightlife scenes. Denver, Portland, and Salt Lake City are all known for their outdoor recreation options. The following cities are all infamous for the exact opposite — being the worst city to visit for a certain activity type.

We condensed the list of 715 Google location categories into 10 broad groups and ranked small and midsize cities based on having the fewest things to do per capita within each group. From travel and accommodations and health and wellness to dining and food and recreation and sports, our groups cover the indoor and outdoor activities that keep a city going.

San Jose, CA, the midsize U.S. city with the overall fewest things to do per capita, also pans out as the midsize city with the fewest nightlife and social venues, as well as travel and accommodation activities per capita. Seven cities tie for the #1 spot of small cities with the fewest nightlife and social venues, with 4 of the 7 in California, including Irvine, Santa Clarita, Fremont, and Chula Vista.

Even more, cities are tied for the #1 spot of small cities with the fewest travel and accommodation activities per capita, and California takes 7 of the 15 spots. Santa Clarita, Santa Ana, Stockton, Riverside, Chula Vista, Irvine, and Oakland are all among the 15 cities tying for #1 as the small city in the U.S. with the least travel and accommodation locations per capita.

Fort Worth, TX, the #2 midsize U.S. city with the overall fewest things to do per capita, also ties with Memphis, TN, for the #1 spot of midsize cities with the fewest recreation and sports activities per capita. For small towns, it’s back to the West with Santa Ana, CA, Santa Clarita, CA, and North Las Vegas, NV, all tying for the #1 small city with the fewest recreation and sports activities per capita.

For the worst shopping experience, we see a little more diversity but start once again in California, with San Diego as one of the midsize cities holding the fewest shopping locations per capita. It ties with Detroit and Boston for the city with the least shopping activities. Irving, TX, ties with North Las Vegas, NV, and Anaheim, CA, for the small cities with the fewest shopping locations per capita.

North Las Vegas, NV, the overall most boring city in America, also has the least outdoor and nature locations available per capita. We have a nine-way tie for the midsize city with the least outdoor and nature locations, including Detroit, Dallas, San Antonia, and Oklahoma City. All of these cities only have 4 locations per capita.

Once again, back to North Las Vegas, NV (it has the title of most boring U.S. city for a reason, after all), where the city ties with Santa Clarita, CA, for the #1 spot as the small city with the fewest dining and food locations per capita. In the midsize city bracket, we have a clear winner; Detroit, with only 13 dining and food locations per capita, is the #1 midsize city worst for dining and food.

Rounding out our highlight of the most boring cities by category, we go back to — you guessed it — North Las Vegas, NV. The city ties with Anaheim, CA, and Garland, TX, for the small city with the fewest health and wellness establishments per capita. For midsize cities, we have a 19-way tie for only having 1 health & wellness location per capita. Texas cities are represented the most, with Fort Worth, San Antonio, Dallas, and El Paso all among the 19 midsize cities worst for health and wellness travel.

Escape the Boredom, Anytime, Anywhere with Solitaired

Have you found yourself on a vacation that didn’t turn out to provide as much fun as you expected? Are you visiting folks in a town that now has data-backed evidence of your feelings of boredom? Or perhaps you’ve just learned that the boring feeling your hometown gives you is not just you — it really is the city. The good news is that you don’t have to get out of Dodge to escape the blahs. Boredom is never an issue when you have a fun and classic game in front of you.

From games like Spades, Mahjong, and Spider Solitaire 4 Suits — we offer endless entertainment to keep your mind sharp, engaged, and entertained. As our study shows, not all cities are created equal when it comes to things to do, but with Solitaired, you will always have something fun, no matter where you are or how boring the city you find yourself in is!

Methodology

In October 2024, we found 283,710 locations on Google under 715 different Google listing categories for 94 of the most populated cities in the U.S. to determine which cities have the fewest things to do. We used 715 different Google location categories to capture the full variety of things to do in the country and sorted them into 10 overarching groups. Those groups are:

1. Art & culture
2. Dining & food
3. Education & learning
4. Entertainment & leisure
5. Health & wellness
6. Nightlife & social venues
7. Outdoor & nature
8. Recreation & sports
9. Shopping
10. Travel & accommodation

To ensure we did not unfairly compare large and small cities together, we used the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) definitions for city sizes to create "weight classes" for fair comparison. Those weight classes are:

1. Midsize Cities: OECD - Metropolitan Area: Population between 500,000 and 1.5 million.
2. Small Cities: OECD - Medium-Size Urban Area: Population between 200,000 and 500,000.

To make the comparisons even fairer, we calculated the number of locations per 10,000 residents in each city. Then, we ranked cities by the number of locations per capita within each weight class overall and by each of the 10 overarching categories.

We focused our analysis only on midsize and small cities to avoid the scaling bias induced when large populations disproportionately skew per capita metrics. Per capita metrics can have a non-linear scaling effect, meaning they do not proportionally scale once populations are over a certain threshold.

The small handful of U.S. cities with populations over 1.5 million are objectively rich in things to do, and we eliminated them from the analysis to prevent them from being mislabeled as boring due to this diminishing returns to scale phenomenon.

To establish the variety of things to do in each city, we quantified it using the Shannon Entropy diversity measure, which is commonly used in information theory. We measured the spread of things to do among the 715 different Google location categories in each city to show how evenly distributed they are.

If a city has a greater spread of locations across many different location categories, the entropy score is higher, and if locations are more concentrated in fewer categories, the entropy will be lower, indicating less variety. We normalized the entropy scores on a scale of 0 to 10, with 0 being the least variety of things to do and 10 being the most variety.