—
—Top 10 Cities and Towns, Per Capita
Ranked among the 3,297 US cities and towns with at least 5,000 residents. Smaller towns and non-US cities are excluded from this ranking to avoid a handful of players skewing the rate, but you can still search them above.
Top 10 States (Plus DC), Per Capita
Washington DC leads the country, with Mississippi the top-producing state among the 50.
Methodology: Action Network sourced every NFL player's birthplace from Pro Football Reference's birthplace database, covering every player to appear in a regular-season NFL game. Each birthplace was matched to its city or town population, then converted to a rate of NFL players per 100,000 residents. Cities and towns with fewer than 5,000 residents are excluded from the ranked top 10 to avoid a small number of players skewing the per-capita rate, though they remain searchable above with their raw player count and rate shown. State-level rates were calculated by summing every player's hometown by state, then dividing by each state's 2026 population estimate from the US Census Bureau's Population Estimates Program. Washington DC is included in the state-level ranking as a distinct jurisdiction alongside all 50 states.