Sixteen measures of housing, jobs, infrastructure, safety and health, scored against cities where people live long, secure lives. Every number links to its source.
Where Alameda is strong and weak
Five areas of a healthy city
AlamedaBenchmark citiesBay Area neighbors
Overall score, 0 to 100
How Alameda compares
See every score as a table
Each dot is a city · Alameda is the large dot
All 16 measures
Each line runs from the worst goalpost (left, score 0) to the best (right, score 100). Tap a dot to see the city and its value. A "check" tag marks a value that is less comparable across countries.
Local measure · not in the score
Homelessness in Alameda County cities
People counted as homeless on January 22, 2026, per 10,000 residents. Countries count homelessness differently, so this stays out of the global score.
These links show which decisions affect which measures. They do not predict outcomes or recommend a vote.
Method
How the score works
Each measure is scored from 0 to 100 against fixed goalposts. 100 means a city has reached what the healthiest cities achieve; 0 means it is at or past the worst level.
Homicide and road deaths use a log scale, so going from 10 to 5 deaths counts as much as going from 2 to 1.
Each area averages its measures and needs at least two. The overall score is the plain average of the five areas, and needs all five.
Scores are shown to one decimal place. Tiers: below 20 Critical, 20 to 39.9 Vulnerable, 40 to 59.9 Moderate, 60 to 79.9 Progressing, 80 and above Healthy.
Benchmark cities were chosen by the data, from regions with the best combination of long lives, low poverty, low unemployment and safe roads.
Goalposts for every measureWhat changed from the earlier report
Alameda's 2024 homeless count was 455, not 220 to 240.
Alameda's unemployment rate is 4.8% (2025), not 3.8 to 4.1%.
Homelessness and city credit ratings were removed from the global score because countries measure them differently.
Park area was replaced by satellite tree canopy, because map data records parks differently by country.
Infrastructure was expanded from two to five measures (October 2026), adding access to frequent transit, protected bikeways and everyday services from the ITDP Atlas. Alameda's overall score rose from 58.9 to 59.8.
Every value now comes from an official or established source, listed below.
Known limits
US life expectancy is only available by county, so Alameda shares Alameda County's figure.
US poverty uses census income data, adjusted to match the OECD's national rate.
Some cities lack comparable data for one area, so they show area scores but no overall score.
The transit, bikeway and services measures use the urban area for Copenhagen, Helsinki, Oslo, Singapore and Tokyo, where the Atlas has no city boundary, and are missing where its timetable data has gaps (Zurich, Tokyo and Oslo transit).
The satellite tree map is 10 m (33 ft) fine, so single street trees are often missed in every city.