Cleveland ranked as one of country's 'manliest cities'

CLEVELAND - Take pride, Cleveland men.

Cleveland has earned the distinction as one of the manliest cities in the country, according to the third annual “America’s Manliest Cities” study from Combos. (Yes, this is a real study).

Cleveland ranks sixth on the list, up nine spots from its place in last year’s rankings. That ranking is good enough to make Cleveland the manliest city in the Midwest, better than state counterparts Cincinnati (14), Columbus (18) and Dayton (26).

The study was conducted by Combos and Sperling’s BestPlaces, and looked at data from the country’s 50 largest metropolitan areas, which includes cities and its surrounding suburbs.

Some of categories used to assess manliness included the city’s love for sports, the number of pickups and motorcycle registered in the city, the number of barbeque and chicken wing restaurants, and the number of manly occupations like construction workers, police officers and firefighters.

Cities lost “man points” for factors such as a high number of home furnishing and décor stores, coffee shops, sushi restaurants and cupcake shops.

The top city on the list was Nashville, Tennessee, bumping Charlotte from the number one rankings.

The top-10 list includes:

1. Nashville, TN (▲ 3 spots)
2. Charlotte, NC (▼ 1 spot)
3. Oklahoma City, OK (▲ 22 spots)
4. Memphis, TN (▲ 24 spots)
5. Columbia, SC (▲ 8 spots)
6. Cleveland, OH (▲ 9 spots)
7. Birmingham, AL (▲ 11 spots)
8. Milwaukee, WI (▼ 2 spots)
9. Houston, TX (▲ 15 spots)
10. St. Louis, MO (▲ 2 spots)

Visit the study's website to see the entire list.