Fun Facts about Chandler


Work here
  • Wallet Hub named Chandler the number one best place in America to find a job.
  • Chandler was named the seventh hardest working city in the country with residents working an average 1,165 hours per year.
  • Women own 31.7 percent of the businesses in Chandler.
Play here
  • For 11 years running, Chandler has received a “Playful City USA” award.
  • The League of American Bicyclists named Chandler one of the U.S.’s most bicycle-friendly cities.
  • Folley Park was named after Zora Folley, a former city council-member who was also a former heavyweight boxer and fought Muhammad Ali for the title.
  • Speaking of parks, Chandler has 67 – and one neighborhood park in every residential square mile of the city.
  • Chandler enjoys six aquatic centers, a bike park, skate park, multiple dog parks and a 7.5-mile trail system called the Paseo.
  • Since it’s opening in 1989, more than 2 million people have walked through the doors of the Chandler Center for the Arts.
  • The annual Tumbleweed holiday tree lights up downtown with 1,200 lights, 1,500 to 2,000 tumbleweeds, 65 pounds of glitter and 25 pounds of paint.
  • The Chandler Chamber’s annual Ostrich Festival is the proud recipient of three Zonie Awards for Best Festival.
Live here
  • Chandler was named in the top 100 best cities for young people five times.
  • The average temperature in Chandler is 85 degrees.
  • Population density of Chandler is 4,393 people per square mile. Chandler has experienced zero snow days.
  • The median age in Chandler is 34.1 years.
  • In 1960, Chandler’s population was 9,531. Today, Chandler’s population is more than 250,000.
Grow here
  • Chandler Airport started regular commercial service in the 1920s and is the 40th busiest in the country – and has the busiest FAA contract tower in the U.S.
  • “New Square,” previously “Site 6” across from Chandler City Hall, envisions more than 150,000 square feet of office space, commercial and hotel
    development and 500 to 700 new jobs.
  • Chandler is the only city in the nation to have reduced parking standards for new developments that take into account autonomous vehicles.
Humble beginnings
  • Chandler’s founder, Dr. Alexander J. Chandler, was a Canadian from Quebec who came here as the Arizona Territory’s first veterinarian.
  • Architect Frank Lloyd Wright and Dr. A.J. Chandler were friends and had drawn up plans for a second San Marcos Resort in 1930 but it was never built because of the Great Depression.
  • In 1912, Downtown Chandler consisted of three wooden shacks – a town-site office, dining hall and the Morrison grocery.
  • The San Marcos Hotel was named after the Franciscan Friar Marcos de Niza, believed to be the first European settler in the valley.
  • Al Capone stayed there. So did Clark Gable, Bing Crosby, Herbert Hoover and Jimmy Stewart.
  • The McCullough-Price House, now the Chandler Museum, was once owned by Dr. A.J. Chandler’s niece, Louise Price.
And finally
  • There is a crematorium in Chandler called Crazy Carl’s Crematorium actually owned by none other than … Crazy Carl.
  • A new housing development in east Chandler was temporarily halted when a construction crew unearthed the bones of a wooly mammoth.
  • The Tumbleweed Recreation Center hosts Zombie Zumba around Halloween. Dance ‘til your limbs fall off.