Mecklenburg County and the 2025 Trust for Public Land ParkScore
Each year, the Trust for Public Land (TPL), a national nonprofit, ranks the 100 most populous U.S. cities according to several park and recreation metrics. The TPL ParkScore ranked Charlotte-Mecklenburg County 90 out of 100 in 2025.
Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation appreciates TPL’s efforts to create a baseline for measuring park systems across the United States but recognizes limitations and biases in the ranking’s methodology. The department offers the following paper for context and clarity on these limitations, as well as the County’s strategy for park and recreation investments.
Mecklenburg County’s growing population, combined with an ever-present demand for outdoor recreation space, has resulted in a steady increase in the usage of Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation Department facilities over the past several years. This growth in facility usage, combined with release of the annual report by the Trust for Public Land (TPL), which ranks the department as one of the lowest performers among its counterparts nationwide, feeds an ongoing debate about the quality, location and amount of park facilities offered to area residents. In this brief discussion paper, Park and Recreation staff shed light on the annual ParkScore ranking by offering context on the way in which the score is calculated and the study’s history, as well as highlighting a few key findings from this year’s study.
How is the TPL ParkScore calculated?
Each year, the ParkScore Index is conducted for the 100 most populous cities in the United States. Agencies submit data on a voluntary basis. The ParkScore analysis is based on five categories that may indicate the quality of a park system: acreage, access, equity, investment and amenities. Within each of these five broad categories, points are assigned to each agency for 15 measures. Points are awarded on a relative basis, meaning they are assigned based on how a city compares to the other 99 cities for a particular measure.
The 15 measures used by TPL to make their evaluation are listed in the table below:
| TPL Evaluation Criteria | |
|---|---|
| Category | Measures |
| Acreage |
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| Access |
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| Equity |
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| Investment |
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| Amenities |
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Participating agencies receive a numeric score between 0 and 100 for each of the five categories. The five scores are then averaged to determine an agency’s overall ParkScore. This year, Charlotte-Mecklenburg received a score of 39.6 points out of 100 based on an average of the five categories. There are 15 measures across these categories, with points awarded based on how Charlotte-Mecklenburg compares to the other 99 cities for that particular measure. Each city or metropolitan area is assigned a ranking such that the agency with the largest overall ParkScore receives a ranking of 1 and the agency with the smallest overall ParkScore receives a ranking of 100.
For its 2025 submission, Mecklenburg County worked with the TPL to ensure that all amenities, land inventory holdings and budget dollars were included for not only the County system, but for the park and recreation systems of each of Mecklenburg County’s six towns (Cornelius, Davidson, Huntersville, Matthews, Mint Hill and Pineville).
Study Limitations
The Trust for Public Land study has several important limitations to consider when making an analysis of its findings. Cities that typically score well on the ParkScore have small land areas, dense populations and organized street networks. Charlotte-Mecklenburg has large land areas, low-density and the most disorganized street network of the 100 largest cities. These limitations are listed below:
- The study does not control for population density or service area size. Therefore, cities with larger service areas and low population densities (such as Charlotte-Mecklenburg) are unduly penalized in both the Access and Equity categories.
- The TPL study does not account for customer satisfaction rates. Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation consistently receives positive feedback scores of 93% and higher on customer satisfaction surveys.
- Only seven of many potential amenities are included in the analysis. Recent countywide statistically valid surveys demonstrate that Mecklenburg County residents prefer many amenities not included in the TPL analysis. Results of recent community surveys indicate that only two of the top 10 requested park amenities are included within the TPL’s seven measured amenities (recreation centers and sports fields). Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation believes that County park and recreation amenities should reflect the types of facilities requested by county residents.
- Access to parks via the 10-minute walk metric is counted twice, both under the Access measure and under the Equity measure. Because Mecklenburg County’s road network inhibits pedestrian access to parks, the County is unduly penalized in the rankings by having this metric counted twice.
How does Mecklenburg County compare to other park agencies nationwide?
| ParkScore Rankings | |
|---|---|
| Year | Score |
| 2018 | 97 |
| 2019 | 95 |
| 2020 | 95 |
| 2021 | 91 |
| 2022 | 83 |
| 2023 | 85 |
| 2024 | 87 |
| 2025 | 90 |
Acreage
Mecklenburg County received a score of 64/100 for acreage in 2025. The acreage score indicates the relative abundance of large ‘destination’ parks, which include large natural areas that provide critical mental health as well as climate and conservation benefits. There are two components to the acreage score. Of these, Charlotte-Mecklenburg County scores below average on the percentage of the city’s overall area that is dedicated to parkland (26 out of 100 points), and among the highest on median park size (100 out of 100 points).
Access
The access score indicates the percentage of a city’s residents who live within a walkable half mile of a park – the average distance that most people are willing to walk to reach a destination. With 39% of its population living this close to a park, Charlotte-Mecklenburg County scores below average in this category.
Investment
The investment score indicates the relative financial health of a city’s park system, which is essential to ensuring the park system is maintained at a high level. This value aggregates park and recreation spending across all agencies and organizations within the city, including monetized volunteer hours. In Charlotte-Mecklenburg County, a total of $111 per capita is spent each year on publicly accessible parks and recreation, below average for this category.
Amenities
Mecklenburg County, overall, scores slightly below average nationally (34/100) for its inventory of the seven amenities listed in the table above. Overall for this category, Charlotte-Mecklenburg County scores below average, though it varies by amenity: basketball hoops (43 points out of 100), sport fields and diamonds (28 points), dog parks (41 points), playgrounds (20 points), senior and recreation centers (31 points), permanent restrooms (29 points), and splashpads (29 points).
Equity
The equity score indicates the fairness in the distribution of parks and park space between neighborhoods by race and income. This category is an average of two types of metrics. On the first set of measures, Charlotte-Mecklenburg County scores below average: 16 out of 100 points for people of color living within a 10-minute walk of a park and 15 points for low-income households. The second set of measures compares the distribution of park space. In Charlotte-Mecklenburg County, residents living in neighborhoods of color have access to 14% less nearby park space than those living in white neighborhoods (66 points out of 100). Residents living in lower-income neighborhoods have access to 6% more nearby park space than those in higher-income neighborhoods (83 points out of 100).
Where do we go from here?
The Trust for Public Land ParkScore is just one of many studies used to evaluate the quality of park systems nationwide. Other national groups, including the National Recreation and Park Association (NRPA), have adopted TPL’s 10-minute walk goal as a benchmark for park access. NPRA conducts a similar evaluation of park systems across the nation and, while the methodology differs in some regard from that of the TPL, the results are similar. In both analyses, Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation is shown to lag behind its counterparts primarily in access to parks.
Meck Playbook, the department’s 10-year comprehensive master plan, was created with extensive community input and endorsed by the Mecklenburg Board of County Commissioners in December of 2021. This study provides direction and high-level strategic growth recommendations for the department. Major playbook recommendations include reinvesting in older parks in the urban crescent to the north, east and west of uptown Charlotte, as well as enhancing community engagement efforts to ensure that program offerings meet the needs of residents and are available at times and locations convenient to them. In 2025, Mecklenburg County will conduct a mid-cycle Meck Playbook refresh, in order to engage the community to see how the County is doing and where to focus efforts over the next five years.
The department continues to maintain strong relationships with the other municipalities in Mecklenburg County in order to ensure the development of complimentary facilities. Staff is also working with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools to combine land acquisition efforts to further expand public access to parks and open space. Finally, partnerships with the Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) will improve access to Park and Recreation facilities via bus and light rail transit.
Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation is an NRPA Gold Medal-winning organization and a Commission for the Accreditation of Parks and Recreation Agencies (CAPRA)-accredited agency. It is also the only park and recreation agency in the state to hold the North Carolina Department of Labor’s Carolina Public Sector Star Certification. The department’s commitment to customer service is demonstrated not only by the numbers, but by the countless lives touched each day. Park and Recreation provides a broad range of services, programs and truly special parks. The department appreciates its strong community advocates and will continue to strive to provide the residents of Mecklenburg County with the best it has to offer.