16 towns. 5 rounds.
1 champion.

Compete

Anybody can nominate their town for the Strongest Town Contest. If your town is accepted during the nomination review process, it will become an official contestant in the 2026 Contest.

Rally support and showcase your town’s strength, capitalizing on the benefits of amplifying your town’s story through Strong Towns.

Vote

At the beginning of each round of the Strongest Town Contest, we will open voting on strongesttown.com. It’s up to our readers to vote for their favorite contestants.

As a competing town, you can rally your neighbors to submit their votes and give your community a competitive edge!

Win

The winning town will be honored at the Strong Towns National Gathering, with two representatives flown in (room and board covered) and presented with their award, plus we’ll create a special film about your town.

Note: While the contest is open to anyone in the world, we can only cover flights to the Gathering from the continental United States due to the small budget of our organization. If a town outside the continental US wins, the scope and nature of the film may also be subject to negotiation.

What Makes a Strong Town

The Strong Towns Approach

A “strong town” is any town, big or small, that prioritizes making progress in transportation, housing, and fiscal resiliency for the long-term benefit of its people. It is not a “perfect” town, nor does every strong town look the same. This is because strong towns incrementally adapt to the conditions and challenges of their specific place from the bottom up.

Five Priority Campaigns

The Strongest Town Contest discovers and spotlights towns that are building resilience from the bottom-up to an international audience. At each stage of the competition, we spotlight a different aspect of how the competitors are applying the Strong Towns Approach to make strides in the movement’s five core campaigns.

16 towns. 5 rounds. 1 champion.

Compete

Vote

Win

What Makes a Strong Town

The Strong Towns Approach

Five Priority Campaigns

Transparent Local Accounting

End Highway Expansion

Safe & Productive Streets

Incremental Housing

End Parking Mandates & Subsidies

Strongest Town Contest

16 towns. 5 rounds.
1 champion.