California's 'Most Hipster' Cities Revealed

Thrift stores, coffee shops, microbreweries, retail music shops and dealers, tattoo parlors, live music venues and bicycle shops. These are the places where hipsters spend their time and money, and, according to a leading marketing data provider, the more such businesses a city has, the more hipster it is.

Infogroup has released a list of the “Top 10 Most Hipster U.S. Metro Areas,” which it compiled by using its business database of more than 15 million records to determine which metro areas with a population of at least 1 million have the highest concentration of hipster-friendly businesses per 10,000 residents.

But first, what is a hipster? Webster’s New World College Dictionary defines a hipster as a throwback to the beatniks of the 1950s and the early 1960s.

For Infogroup’s research purposes, it referred to Urbandictionary.com’s description of hipsters as “men and women in their 20s and 30s who dislike anything ‘mainstream,’ have progressive political ideas and enjoy indie rock and art.”

Surprisingly, San Diego was ranked more hipster than San Francisco, but Sacramento beat them both. Sacramento was ranked the fourth most hipster of U.S. metro areas with a population of at least 1 million, San Diego was ranked sixth and San Francisco was ranked ninth.

1. Seattle
2. Portland
3. Denver
4. Sacramento
5. Grand Rapids, Michigan
6. San Diego
7. Providence, Rhode Island
8. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
9. San Francisco
10. Rochester, New York

Here is what Infogroup had to say about Sacramento:

“There are plenty of characteristics that position this city in fourth place on our hip cities list. Considered ‘the new Oakland,’ Sacramento has been recognized for its growing food and coffee scene, as well as its nearby nature destinations. By looking at the numbers, we can also see that a large number of businesses of interest in this city are thrift shops (more than 30 percent), followed by coffee shops (16 percent) and tattoo parlors (15 percent). Sacramento is a great city that is not yet perceived as ‘too mainstream’ and where regular hipsters can feel at home and pay less in rent than their San Francisco friends.”

About San Diego:

“Nicknamed ‘America’s Finest City,’ San Diego is the eighth largest city in the U.S. and second largest in California. Looking at the pre-determined hipster businesses, we see that the city's main hipster-related businesses are thrift stores (19 percent), tattoo parlors (17 percent), coffee shops (16 percent), music and entertainment (15 percent), bicycle dealers (13 percent), and microbreweries (12 percent). Also, out of the top 10 hipster cities, San Diego has the most music and live entertainment venues.”

And about San Francisco:

“As home to the Beat Generation and the hippie movement in the late 1950s and early 1960s, San Francisco has deeply hip roots. Today, San Francisco appeals to the modern hipster with single-location coffee shops making up 28 percent of all businesses of interest. Thrift stores (16 percent), bicycle dealers (16 percent) and tattoo parlors (12 percent) make up the rest. Also, compared to all other hipster cities, San Francisco has the most record, tape and CD stores as well as bicycle dealers. If you need more proof, take a stroll through places like the Haight, where we’re all reminded that San Francisco will never stop being hip.”

To view Infogroup’s complete report about “The Top 10 Most Hipster Cities in the U.S.,” and see which cities received honorable mentions when it comes to being hipster-friendly, click here.

(Photo/Mike Knell via Flickr Creative Commons)