How the walkability score works
How Walkable scores any location on Earth from 0 to 100 by counting the everyday places within a walk and checking how well the streets connect them. A score of 90 or more means daily errands do not need a car; below 50 means most errands do.
| Score | Rating | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| 95 | 90–100: Walker's Paradise | Daily errands do not require a car. |
| 80 | 70–89: Very Walkable | Most errands can be accomplished on foot. |
| 60 | 50–69: Somewhat Walkable | Some errands can be accomplished on foot. |
| 35 | 25–49: Car-Dependent | Most errands require a car. |
| 10 | 0–24: Car-Dependent | Almost all errands require a car. |
1. Everyday places earn points
Places in nine categories earn up to 15 points in total. The nearest place in a category counts most, and a few more count for less, so a street with ten restaurants scores higher than one with a single café, but not ten times higher.
| Category | Points | Places that count |
|---|---|---|
| Groceries | 3 | The nearest supermarket or grocery store |
| Restaurants & bars | 3 | The 10 nearest, from 0.75 points for the closest |
| Shopping | 2 | The 5 nearest shops |
| Coffee | 2 | The 2 nearest cafés |
| Banks | 1 | The nearest bank |
| Parks | 1 | The nearest park entrance or edge |
| Schools | 1 | The nearest school |
| Books & libraries | 1 | The nearest bookshop or library |
| Culture & entertainment | 1 | The nearest cinema, theatre, museum or venue |
A chain's branches are often labelled inconsistently, so each brand gets one category based on how most of its places are labelled. Convenience stores count as shopping, not groceries.
2. Points fade with walking distance
A place earns its full points within a 5 minute walk (400 m). Its value then falls steadily to 12% at a 20 minute walk (1.6 km) and to nothing at a 30 minute walk (2.4 km).
Walking distance is the straight-line distance multiplied by a route factor, because streets rarely run straight to where you are going. The factor is 1.3 on a dense, connected street grid and rises to 2.0 where intersections are sparse, such as cul-de-sac suburbs or areas cut up by highways.
3. Disconnected streets cost up to 20%
Within 800 m of the location, the score counts street intersections and measures average block length. Fewer than about 77 intersections per km² costs up to 10%, and blocks longer than 120 m cost up to another 10%, because sparse, long blocks make every walk longer than the map suggests.
Data
Places come from the Overture Maps Foundation, which combines OpenStreetMap with other open sources. Only places with a confidence of at least 0.7 count, and closed places and car dealers are left out. Streets are OpenStreetMap roads and paths, excluding motorways, service roads and footways. Parks are OpenStreetMap park areas.
The current data is Overture release 2026-09-23.1: 24,283,286 places and 63,437,426 street cells covering every country. City pages use city centres and populations from GeoNames.
Accuracy
How Walkable follows the method Walk Score® publishes, and was checked against it at 46 addresses across the United States and Canada in October 2026. The scores differed by 5.5 points on average. The largest differences are in car-oriented suburbs, where Walk Score routes along the real street network and finds longer walks than the route factor estimates.
Scores can only be as complete as the open map data. Where few shops and restaurants are mapped, such as much of mainland China and parts of West and Central Africa, scores understate how walkable a place is, so city rankings leave those cities out.
Frequently asked questions
What is a walkability score?
A walkability score rates how easy it is to live in a place without a car, from 0 to 100. It counts the everyday places within walking distance, such as groceries, restaurants, shops, parks and schools, and accounts for how directly the streets lead to them.
What is a good walkability score?
70 or more is good: most errands can be done on foot. 90 or more is a Walker's Paradise, where daily errands do not need a car at all. Between 50 and 69, some errands can be done on foot, and below 50 most need a car.
How is the walkability score calculated?
Places in nine categories earn up to 15 points, with the nearest places counting most. Each place's points fall with walking distance, from full value within 400 m to nothing beyond 2.4 km. The total is scaled to 100, and up to 20% is deducted where intersections are sparse or blocks are long.
How accurate is How Walkable?
At 46 addresses across the United States and Canada, How Walkable's scores were within 5.5 points of Walk Score® on average. Outside North America, accuracy depends on how completely shops and restaurants are mapped in open data.
How is How Walkable different from Walk Score?
How Walkable follows the method Walk Score publishes, but it is free, built entirely on open map data, and covers every country rather than mainly the United States, Canada and Australia. Walk Score routes along real streets, while How Walkable estimates routes from street density.
Which places does How Walkable cover?
Every location on Earth. Click anywhere on the map or search an address to get a score. Of the 252 large cities ranked on How Walkable, Taipei in Taiwan scores highest, with 100.
Is How Walkable free?
Yes. Scores are free to look up for any address, with no account needed.
Can I get walkability scores from an API?
Yes. GET https://howwalkable.com/api/score?lat=45.7745&lon=4.83 returns the score for a latitude and longitude, with points per category, the nearest places, and street layout measures, as JSON.
Walk Score is a registered trademark of Redfin. How Walkable is an independent project and is not affiliated with Walk Score or Redfin.