SKATEDEXSkatepark deserts 2026: US cities of 50,000+ with no public skatepark
289 of the 824 US cities with at least 50,000 residents have no public, open skatepark listed inside their limits in the Skatedex directory. Sorted by population, with the nearest listed public park to each city center.
Read this before citing a city. This list means no public park is listed inside the city in the Skatedex directory. In states where the directory is thin (Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and New Jersey have the fewest listings per resident), a large city can appear here because its parks have not been added yet, not because it has none. Check the city's own parks department before reporting a desert, and tell us what we are missing.
Know of a public park inside one of these cities? Submit it and the next edition will count it.
Methodology
Parks. Only skateparks in the Skatedex directory marked public and open are counted: entries flagged private or permanently closed are excluded, as are parks without a map location. Directory as of 2026-09-16.
Population. Census Bureau Vintage 2025 Population Estimates (resident population as of July 1, 2025): state totals and incorporated-place totals. Cities are Census places (incorporated cities, towns and villages), not metro areas; a park counts for the place named in its address, or, when the address does not name a Census place, for the place whose boundary-equivalent circle contains it. Parks in unincorporated areas count for their state but no city.
Rates. Parks per 100,000 residents = parks divided by population times 100,000. States are ranked 1 to 50 (District of Columbia is shown with cities). Cities are ranked among all 824 incorporated places with at least 50,000 residents. Ties are broken by park count, then population.
Skatepark deserts. Places of at least 50,000 residents with no public, open skatepark listed in the Skatedex directory inside them by either test above. A listing gap and a real gap look the same here, so each desert shows the nearest listed public park; if you know of a park inside a listed city, submit it and the next edition will count it.
Change since last year. This is the first edition; the 2027 edition will show movement against these numbers.
How this differs from the Skatedex Annual Index. The Annual Index 2026 counts every listed park, uses the prior Census vintage, and scores cities by parks within a 10-mile radius of the center. These rankings use the newest vintage, public and open parks only, and place boundaries, so ranks differ. Both are free to cite with a link.