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10 Cities Where You’ll Have the Most Open Space

Social distancing and keeping six feet of space between each other as we wander out into the world is the key for society to creep back towards normal. But in places like New York, San Francisco and some of the densest cities in America, where there are just so many people, it becomes difficult to find your own space in which to walk, bike, jog or shop.

But across the country, there are other big cities that offer wide-open spaces, ample roomy parks and secluded neighborhoods. So, what are the nation’s cities with the least crowds and the most room to move? They’re diverse stops across the country, capital cities, college towns and bedroom suburbs alike, mostly in warm weather states and in the South and Midwest.

Here are the top 10 cities where you’ll find the most open space, as well as the average cost of a one-bedroom apartment in these areas.

10. Athens, GA

Athens, GA

  • Population: 125,964
  • Land area (Square miles): 116
  • Population density per square mile: 992

“Stand in the place where you live,” ponders Athens, GA-based rock band R.E.M., “think about direction, wonder why you haven’t before.” The smallest city in our top 10 in both population and size, Athens is indeed a place that offers enough open space and distance where you can stand and gaze off into the distance and breathe.

Just 90 minutes to the east of Atlanta, Athens is best known as the home city for the main campus of the University of Georgia, as well as its famous associated underground and college music scene that produced artists such as The B-52’s, Neutral Milk Hotel, Matthew Sweet, Bubba Sparxxx, Drive-By Truckers, Vic Chesnutt, of Montreal, Widespread Panic and, yes, rock-and-roll hall-of-famers R.E.M.

Music is pervasive in this town, even in the solitude of open spots like Sandy Creek Park and Nature Center, Bear Hollow Wildlife Trail, State Botanical Garden of Georgia and the University of Georgia Campus Arboretum.

While not the biggest of open spaces, perhaps Athens’ most famous is the 200 square feet surrounding the Tree That Owns Itself, an actual tree (well, the descendent of one) that, by local legend, has legal ownership of itself and the land around it. Whether surrounding one tree or many, a lease in Athens for a one-bedroom apartment will set you back $777 a month on average.

9. Columbia, SC

Columbia, SC

  • Population: 133,451
  • Land area (Square miles): 132
  • Population density per square mile: 978

When your city is home to the largest basic combat training facility in the world, you tend to know a bit about wide-open spaces. The U.S. Army Fort Jackson Military Installation covers the entire eastern region of Columbia, SC, a massive 52,000-acre site that fills more than 60 percent of the city’s land area.

The city has been steeped in the military annals for generations, as home to the historic South Carolina Secession Convention, where in 1860, the state voted to become the first to leave the Union ahead of the Civil War.

If you’re looking for open space in Columbia today, green space abounds, with parks, including the nearly-1,500-acre Sesquicentennial State Park, downtown’s Finlay Park, Memorial Park and Granby Park, plus Riverbanks Zoo & Garden and W. Gordon Belser Arboretum.

The Soda City also includes the 360 acres of the urban college campus at the University of South Carolina, which may not seem so empty on football Saturdays at the Gamecocks’ 80,000-seat Williams-Brice Stadium, one of the top 20 largest in the nation.

Not just the state’s seat of government but also its largest city, Columbia offers a number of personalities within its limits, a military town, a capital town, a manufacturing town, an outdoor recreation town, an antebellum town and a river town. But to experience all of the Columbias, expect an average monthly rent for a one-bedroom to run $1,086.

8. Oklahoma City, OK

Oklahoma City, OK

  • Population: 649,021
  • Land area (Square miles): 606
  • Population density per square mile: 956

Oklahoma has “plenty of air and plenty of room to swing a rope, plenty of heart and plenty of hope,” according to its namesake musical. And in the heart of it, Oklahoma’s capital city has more than its fair share of that plenty of air and room.

At more than 600 square miles, Oklahoma City ranks as the second-largest city in the continental U.S. by area with a population north of 100,000 behind only Jacksonville. With that amount of sheer geography — even as the most populous city in our top 10 — it’s no wonder that O.K.C. ranks high on our list.

The central Oklahoma town where the wind comes sweeping down the plain is more than its oil rig and cowtown roots. O.K.C. is a bustling city full of vibrant neighborhoods, close-knit communities and big business sectors in tech, healthcare and both traditional and sustainable energy.

But there’s also a plethora of open space to distance safely in while enjoying the spring. Each quadrant of the city has a major park — a remnant of O.K.C.’s original master city plan — including Will Rogers, Lincoln, Trosper and Woodson Parks.

In addition, the city offers open spots like Myriad Botanical Gardens, Stars and Stripes Park and Oklahoma City Zoo and Botanical Garden, plus hiking and biking trails along Hefner, Overholser and Stanley Draper lakes.

More than a quarter-century after the attack on the Murrah Federal Building and 20 years after the Moore tornadoes, the city has rebuilt and become one of the most vibrant in the Great Plains. Midwest comfort and urban living can be had for $873 a month for an average one-bedroom apartment.

7. Peoria, AZ

Peoria, AZ

  • Population: 172,259
  • Land area (Square miles): 174
  • Population density per square mile: 883

The seventh-largest suburb of Phoenix, Peoria — christened for the same Native American word as its namesake in Illinois — is a wide swath of land stretching north from the Valley of the Sun.

Like much of Arizona, the city is filled with golf courses, senior communities, resort living and big box stores, and is also the spring training home of both the San Diego Padres and Seattle Mariners at the massive Peoria Sports Complex.

Much of Peoria is quilted with large golf course communities and planned suburban subdivisions south of Happy Valley Road, but once you’re north of the divide, the vast land becomes filled with dry river beds and endless desert-scape.

Exacerbating the open spaces, this area houses the Peoria Regional, Peoria Sunrise Mountain and Peoria West Wing Mountain Preserves, as well as the Lake Pleasant Regional Park surrounding its 10,000-acre eponymous lake. The artificial reservoir was formed by the creation of the Carl Pleasant Dam in 1927, which at the time was the largest multi-arch dam in the world.

But the expansive lake didn’t find its current dimensions until 1994 when the New Waddell Dam tripled the acreage of the lake, submerging the old dam in the process. Additionally, the city has set aside a full 750 acres of permanent open recreation space of picturesque waterways and hiking trails.

To reside in one of Money Magazine’s former “Best Places to Live,” you’ll have to shell out $1,210 a month on average for a one-bedroom Peoria apartment.

6. Columbus, GA

Columbus, GA

  • Population: 194,160
  • Land area (Square miles): 216
  • Population density per square mile: 878

Way down yonder on the Chattahoochee is the city of Columbus, GA, just 100 miles southwest of Atlanta. The state’s third-largest city and the nation’s second-largest Columbus, perhaps its biggest claim to fame is its status as home to the 1996 Olympic softball competition, held at 5,000-seat Golden Park.

Columbus sits along the Atlantic Seaboard Fall Line, the steep, hilly slope where the Piedmont plateau ends and the level terrain of oceanic coastal plain begins. This forms a distinct border between urban Columbus on the west side of town and the rolling hills that dissolve into flat plains towards the east.

This plains land is sparsely populated with few navigable roads, helping Columbus rank high on social open space. Much of that land acts as a buffer zone between the city and 284-square mile Fort Benning, the fifth-largest military base in the world.

Wide-open park space is also abundant in Columbus in places such as Flat Rock Park and the Columbus Botanical Garden, as well as along the Chattahoochee River Whitewater Course. Opened in 2012 after breaches of both city dams reverted the river to its natural conditions, the two-and-a-half-mile course claims to be the longest urban white-water kayaking and rafting course in the world, as well as USA Today’s “Best Man-Made Whitewater” in the world. It even features an interstate zip line over the river from Georgia into Alabama.

Rents remain affordable in this Peach State city, with a one-bedroom unit leasing for a monthly rate of $795.

5. Huntsville, AL

Huntsville, AL

  • Population: 197,318
  • Land area (Square miles): 209
  • Population density per square mile: 862

What better place to find open space than in the city known for its role in space flight at the height of the space race? In the middle of the 20th century, Huntsville, AL, transformed from a small textile town into The Rocket City, the site of early U.S. space program development.

During World War II, the U.S. government found the open and empty spaces surrounding the city the perfect spot to isolate its chemical munitions facilities. After the war, these facilities were transformed into the Redstone space flight center. Big rockets require big space.

Today, Huntsville is a modern, bustling Southern city. Museums like Constitution Village, Huntsville Museum of Art and Early Work’s Children’s Museum offer open indoor spaces for the family.

And outdoors, find breathing room on the Madison County Nature Trail, the Land Trust of North Alabama Monte Sano Nature Preserve, Blevins Gap, Green Mountain, Wade Mountain, Three Caves Quarry and Bethel Spring Nature Preserves and Big Spring Park, the regular home of the Panoply Arts Festival and Big Spring Jam.

And for more outside activity, downtown is also the heart of the Huntsville Craft Beer Trail, with eight craft breweries and four craft beer stores offering curbside pickup and delivery.

Whether or not you’re a rocket scientist, Huntsville is a wide-open, tentacled city in North Alabama’s Appalachians in which to set up your permanent launch pad. For a successful mission to a one-bedroom apartment, you’ll land an average unit for a monthly rate of $1,088.

4. Chesapeake, VA

Chesapeake, VA

  • Population: 242,634
  • Land area (Square miles): 341
  • Population density per square mile: 652

Sharing the southeast corner of Virginia with the Tidewater towns of Norfolk, Newport News, Virginia Beach and Hampton, Chesapeake is the Hampton Roads region’s third-largest community.

However, Chesapeake is the only city in Hampton Roads without direct access to the Atlantic Ocean, directly or via the James River or the Chesapeake Bay, giving it the ability to spread out and exist as the least-crowded acreage in the district.

Most of the population of Chesapeake is concentrated on the small northern sections off Interstate 64 around the cloverleaf interchanges with Greenbrier Parkway and Battlefield Boulevard.

The remainder of the city offers a great deal of Virginia farmland, plus the 4,550-acre Cavalier Wildlife Management Area and a substantial portion of the Great Dismal Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, all within the city limits creating a great deal of available room. Closer to the population centers, the city offers great open green spaces, like Oak Grove Lake Park, Chesapeake City Park and the Chesapeake Arboretum.

While Virginia’s beaches will increasingly crowd as spring and summer weather moves in, the city of Chesapeake remains isolated from the waterfront. To have proximity to the water recreation and beachfront but still plenty of room to distance, it will run $1,312 a month for an average one-bedroom apartment.

3. Augusta, GA

Augusta, GA

  • Population: 196,939
  • Land area (Square miles): 302
  • Population density per square mile: 648

When you’re home of the revered The Masters golf tournament and your city contains the sprawling Augusta National Golf Course, it’s no wonder that Augusta, GA, is one of the least densely populated cities in the country.

But it’s not just the 345-acre course, where green jacket dreams are made, that gives Augusta its spacious land. The majority of the population of the Garden City lives in its downtown along the Georgia-South Carolina border. However, the city limits stretch into the woodlands and wetlands southeast along the Savannah River and southwest towards and past the 56,000-acre Fort Gordon, home of the U.S. Army Cyber and Signal Commands.

The second-largest city in the state of Georgia, Augusta is a hub for the medical and biotechnology industries just two hours east of Atlanta, the state’s largest. A number of parks also contribute to the open spacing and social distancing, including Phinizy Swamp, Diamond Lakes, Brookfield and Pendleton King Parks, along with the riverfront Riverwalk Augusta, Augusta Canal bike path and Augusta Common.

To live here in this golfers’ paradise and its breathable elbow room, it will cost $970 a month on average for a one-bedroom apartment.

2. Norman, OK

Norman, OK

  • Population: 123,471
  • Land area (Square miles): 179
  • Population density per square mile: 621

The state capital of Oklahoma City is not the only wide-open space in the heart of the Sooner State. Just to the southeast, the college town of Norman is the least dense city in the entire continental U.S.

To even the casual college sports fan, it may not seem like a spacious haven Saturdays in the fall as 86,000 Boomer Sooner fans descend on Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium to watch the seven-time National Champion University of Oklahoma football team. But the city limits include the 5,400-acre Lake Thunderbird and the parkland and farmland that surrounds it, which take up the entire eastern side of the city.

Norman sits just a half-hour south of downtown Oklahoma City and is itself the third-largest in the state by population. It’s most well known as a Big 12 college town, but also exhibits the earmarks of a traditional industrial and business suburb and bedroom community for O.K.C. Along with the main OU campus, Norman is also home to the National Weather Center and its renowned Storm Prediction Center.

Whether for college students or oil tycoons, an average one-bedroom apartment in Norman leases for a monthly rate of $696.

1. Anchorage, AK

Anchorage, AK

  • Population: 291,538
  • Land area (Square miles): 1,705
  • Population density per square mile: 171

Up in the Great White North, there’s a lot of room and a lot of empty space. And that’s not just true in the wilderness, but in Alaska’s most populous and geographically largest city, as well. And not only is Anchorage Alaska’s biggest city by area but also the biggest in the entire United States — by nearly 1,000 square miles. Jacksonville, FL, a gigantic city in its own right, is No. 2 but 958 square miles smaller.

So, with all that space but a population just less than 300,000 in its 1,700 square miles (larger than the state of Rhode Island), it’s no wonder Anchorage is the U.S. city with the most space and the best for social distancing. Even so, it still contains nearly a third of the entire population of Alaska, mostly concentrated in its downtown.

One of the reasons for its massive size is the inclusion of both Joint Base Elmendorf–Richardson and the half-million-acre Chugach State Park, the third-largest state park in the nation.

Anchorage sits on top of the world, quite literally, as it is located just 370 miles from the Arctic Circle, and is equidistant from New York and Tokyo. But it’s not all sled dogs and glaciers. Settled among the abundant natural beauty is a modern city of trendy restaurants (and the freshest seafood) and fashionable retail with a diverse population (with more than 100 languages spoken), a bustling airport and two universities.

Whether you prefer the 20 hours of daylight during the summer or the six in the winter, Anchorage is a great place to find your open space and a one-bedroom apartment that runs for an average of $1,221 a month.

The top 50 cities with the most space

Looking for more space in more places? Here are the 50 U.S. cities with the most room, the lowest population density per square land mile.

RankCityStatePopulationLand Area (Square Miles)Population Density per Square Mile
1AnchorageAK291,5381,705171
2NormanOK123,471179621
3AugustaGA196,939302648
4ChesapeakeVA242,634341652
5HuntsvilleAL197,318209862
6ColumbusGA194,160216878
7PeoriaAZ172,259174883
8Oklahoma CityOK649,021606956
9ColumbiaSC133,451132978
10AthensGA125,964116992
11LexingtonKY323,7802841,043
12AbileneTX122,9991071,096
13JacksonvilleFL903,8897471,100
14CharlestonSC136,2081091,102
15SurpriseAZ138,1611061,111
16Kansas CityKS152,958124.81,168
17ScottsdaleAZ255,3101841,182
18ChattanoogaTN180,5571371,223
19NashvilleTN669,0534751,265
20Las CrucesNM102,926761,276
21DentonTX138,541881,289
22MontgomeryAL198,2181601,290
23SavannahGA145,8621031,321
24BrownsvilleTX183,3921321,323
25North CharlestonSC113,237731,332
26ClarksvilleTN156,794981,362
27FayettevilleNC209,4681461,375
28MobileAL189,5721391,403
29WacoTX138,183891,403
30BeaumontTX118,428831,429
31PalmdaleCA156,6671061,442
32Port Saint LucieFL195,2481141,445
33Wichita FallsTX104,576721,449
34BirminghamAL209,8801461,453
35Kansas CityMO491,918315.01,460
36Cape CoralFL189,3431061,460
37LakelandFL110,516651,493
38TuscaloosaAL101,113601,502
39IndependenceMO116,92577.61,506
40MidlandTX142,344721,542
41JacksonMS164,4221111,563
42Palm BayFL114,194661,571
43DavenportIA102,085631,584
44VictorvilleCA122,312731,584
45Broken ArrowOK109,171621,606
46Little RockAR197,8811191,624
47League CityTX106,244511,629
48San AngeloTX100,215571,639
49MaconGA153,095561,639
50LancasterCA159,053941,661

The 10 cities with the least space

What are the cities where it’s more difficult to find open space and elbow room? The top 10 cities for the least amount of social distancing space are of course New York City and two of its largest Jersey suburbs, a selection of California towns and two of the largest cities in New England.

RankCityStatePopulationLand Area (Square Miles)Population Density per Square Mile
1New YorkNY8,398,74830327,012
2PatersonNJ145,627817,346
3San FranciscoCA883,3054717,179
4Jersey CityNJ265,5491516,737
5CambridgeMA118,977616,469
6Daly CityCA107,008813,195
7BostonMA694,5834812,793
8InglewoodCA109,419912,095
9Santa AnaCA332,7252711,901
10El MonteCA115,5861011,867

Methodology

To compile this list, we studied every city in the U.S. with more than 100,000 residents (based on 2018 figures from the U.S. Census Bureau) and divided those population figures by each city’s total land area (according to the Census Bureau’s 2010 land area study). This calculation determined the population density per square mile of land area for each city. The cities with the smallest population density were determined to be the best cities for open space.

Rent prices are based on a rolling weighted average from Apartment Guide and Rent.’s multifamily rental property inventory from April 2019 to April 2020. We use a weighted average formula that more accurately represents price availability for each individual unit type and reduces the influence of seasonality on rent prices in specific markets.

The rent information included in this article is used for illustrative purposes only. The data contained herein do not constitute financial advice or a pricing guarantee for any apartment.

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