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Study reveals the U.S. city most obsessed with Starbucks—and it’s not Seattle

Best U.S cities for your Starbucks fix

By Emily Caldwell Published October 22, 2025

A Starbucks cup sitting on a counter inside of a store — Harun Ozmen / Shutterstock

A new study just revealed the top U.S cities to get your Starbucks — and it’s (surprisingly) not Seattle. Researchers examined 50 of the country’s largest cities across six ranking factors, such as local coffee prices, convenience of access, and Starbucks density, to determine the best cities to make the list. The list was formulated based on the following scoring criteria:

Number of Starbucks locations per 100,000 residents
Number of Starbucks locations per 10 Square Miles
Number of Starbucks locations per 10,000 homes
Average Price of a Grande, 16 fl oz Pumpkin Spice Latte (PSL)
Percentage of Starbucks locations with Drive-Thrus
Percentage of Starbucks with Order Ahead

The first-place winner—Las Vegas, Nevada—had the best performance across nearly every category measured in the research. Vegas has the most Starbucks locations per 100,000 residents and 10,000 homes, with an impressive 97.8% of Starbucks locations offering order-ahead options. The study found the average price of a Pumpkin Spice Latte (PSL) here to sit around $6.77. On the overall ranking score, Vegas earned a score of 90.7 in total.

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Although Las Vegas ranked in first place, Seattle was a close runner-up as the second-best U.S. Starbucks city (it’s only fitting since Seattle is the birthplace of Starbucks). Seattle earned a total score of 80.6, placing it just ahead of Pittsburgh, PA, with a score of 71.3. Here, the average price of a Pumpkin Spice Latte is $6.90.

Other top U.S Starbucks cities

Beyond Vegas, Seattle, and Pittsburgh, other top U.S. cities that made the list include Orlando, Florida; St. Louis, Missouri; Tampa, Florida; Richmond, Virginia; Cincinnati, Ohio; and Atlanta, Georgia.

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Emily is a Features Writer at The Manual, where she specializes in food, beverage, and travel content. She focuses on weaving…

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