PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — From adult egg hunts to brunch buffets to ice-skating, the Rose City has a wide range of events in store for Easter weekend. This is one reason why Portland performed better than any other Pacific Northwest city on WalletHub’s list of the Best Places to Celebrate Easter.
The National Retail Federation predicts that 2023 will be a landmark year for Easter celebrations, with an estimated 81% of Americans expected to spend $24 billion on the holiday.
Personal finance website WalletHub evaluated Easter celebrations in the U.S.’s 100 biggest cities based on four main categories: Easter observers, traditions, kids’ Easter and Easter weather. Within those categories, the site looked at factors such as churches per capita, flower and gifts shops per capita, acres of parkland per capita and the forecasted precipitation for the holiday.
Portland received a score of 42.39 out of 100 points overall, making it the 47th best place to honor Easter. Here’s how the city performed in each individual category.
- Easter observers: No. 91
- Easter traditions: No. 9
- Kids’ Easter: No. 94
- Easter weather: No. 81
Seattle was the only other Oregon or Washington city to make WalletHub’s top 100. At No. 71, Seattle received 39.93 points overall. It had the best ranking in the Easter traditions category and the worst ranking in the kids’ Easter category.
Both Portland and Seattle were recognized for having some of the lowest Christian populations out of any major city. According to WalletHub, the two cities had the third and second lowest Christian populations, beat out only by Anchorage, Alaska.
Top cities to celebrate Easter are Pittsburgh, Pa., Buffalo, N.Y., El Paso, Texas, New Orleans, and Birmingham, Ala.
To complete its study, WalletHub used data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Association of Religion Data Archives and The Trust for Public Land, to name a few.