Photo by Erin.

There is plenty to do and see in D.C.’s green spaces, and that has us pulling ahead in the national park ranking game.

The District—which has 8,513 acres of parks, or 22 percent of the city’s land—jumped from sixth last year to third in the Trust for Public Land‘s annual analysis. And it is even more remarkable considering that they expanded the list by 15 cities this year.

Much of the improvement came from using a broader ranking system that included the number of basketball hoops, dog parks, recreation and senior centers, and playgrounds in the facilities category, where D.C. fares particularly well. Evidently we have 4 basketball hoops and 2.3 recreation and senior centers for every 10,000 residents and 1.7 dog parks per 100,000 residents. Our playground ratio wasn’t quite as impressive, though, with only 1.8 per 10,000 residents.

The ParkScore index also showed that 97 percent of Washintonians are within a 10-minute walk of a park, while identifying a few areas that still have a high need for access to green space—most of which are east of the river.

Via the Trust For Public Land.

D.C. was bested by Minneapolis and St. Paul, and was followed by San Francisco, New York, and Portland in the top five.