How gay is Seattle? Gayer than Oakland, Salt Lake City, St. Louis, and Atlanta, apparently, but not quite as gay as Pasadena or Washington DC.

This according to The Advocate, which announced its annual list of the “Gayest Cities in America” today. According to the list, Seattle comes in as the third gayest city in the country, with Pasadena at number two and Washington DC at number one.

What’s the method behind The Advocate’s rankings? It’s pretty scientific stuff:

This year’s criteria, designed to uncover the hidden factors that give a city its queer cred, include points for a city’s LGBT elected officials (and fractional points for statewide elected officials), points for the percentage of the population comprised by lesbian-coupled households, a point for a gay rodeo association, points for bars listed in OUT magazine’s 200 Best Bars list, a point per women’s college, and points for concert performances by Mariah Carey, Pink, Lady Gaga, or the Jonas Brothers. The raw score is divided by the population to provide a ranking based on a per capita LGBT quotient.

“We’re especially excited about our top pick this year—partly because it’s always a surprise to us until we crunch the numbers, but also because it inspires such patriotism,” Matthew Breen, editor-in-chief of The Advocate, announces in the press release. “Each year this list reminds us that our experiences are diverse, that we inhabit every part of our country, and that there’s not just one way to evaluate our experiences.”

You can find The Advocate’s full list here. This is the fifth year the magazine has compiled its “gayest cities” rankings.