Anyone who wants to rank socially networked cities is going to be in for a fight. But the brave souls at Men’sHealth aren’t shying away from a tussle, placing the top 100 most socially networked cities in order for all to see.

How did they do it? It appears to be a fair and scientifically valid procedure. First, Men’sHealth figured out each city’s LinkedIn and Facebook users per capita, and then tapped the NetProspex marketing database to figure out each location’s amount of overall Twitter usage.

Not stopping there, the next step was to consult online ad network Chitika to quantify traffic from MySpace, Friendster, Reddit and Digg, and finally, SimplyMap helped determine the percentage of households using chat rooms and blogs.

The list below is as much a study of how to find this information as it is a valid assessment of which city has the bragging rights to calling itself The Capital of Social Networking. Speaking of capital, who knew our nation’s capital, Washington, D.C., would be at the top of the list, or that Milwaukee (#45), the location of Mashable’s humble Midwest Test Facility, would rate higher than the mighty New York City (#53), home of Mashable HQ?

See how your city ranks, and feel free to trash-talk those other lesser bergs in the comments.

Most socially networked
1 Washington, DC A+
2 Atlanta, GA A+
3 Denver, CO A+
4 Minneapolis, MN A+
5 Seattle, WA A+
6 San Francisco, CA A
7 Orlando, FL A
8 Austin, TX A
9 Boston, MA A
10 Salt Lake City, UT A-

11 Cincinnati, OH A-
12 Raleigh, NC A-
13 Burlington, VT A-
14 Portland, OR B+
15 Madison, WI B+
16 Dallas, TX B+
17 Portland, ME B
18 Sacramento, CA B
19 Aurora, CO B
20 Boise, ID B
21 Charlotte, NC B
22 Wilmington, DE B
23 Oakland, CA B
24 St. Louis, MO B
25 Las Vegas, NV B
26 Columbus, OH B
27 San Diego, CA B
28 San Jose, CA B
29 St. Paul, MN B-
30 Plano, TX B-
31 Tampa, FL B-
32 Nashville, TN B-
33 Los Angeles, CA B-
34 Phoenix, AZ B-
35 Newark, NJ B-
36 Miami, FL B-
37 Norfolk, VA C+
38 Richmond, VA C+
39 Chicago, IL C+
40 Durham, NC C+
41 Colorado Springs, CO C+
42 Des Moines, IA C+
43 Jersey City, NJ C+
44 Indianapolis, IN C+
45 Milwaukee, WI C+
46 Fargo, ND C+
47 Columbia, SC C+
48 Houston, TX C+
49 Philadelphia, PA C+
50 Birmingham, AL C+
51 Cleveland, OH C+
52 Kansas City, MO C
53 New York, NY C
54 Greensboro, NC C
55 Reno, NV C
56 Manchester, NH C
57 Providence, RI C
58 Baltimore, MD C
59 Little Rock, AR C
60 Louisville, KY C
61 Sioux Falls, SD C-
62 Omaha, NE C-
63 Pittsburgh, PA C-
64 Baton Rouge, LA C-
65 Lexington, KY C
66 Wichita, KS C-
67 Anchorage, AK C-
68 Lincoln, NE C-
69 Cheyenne, WY D+
70 New Orleans, LA D+
71 Tucson, AZ D+
72 Buffalo, NY D+
73 Honolulu, HI D+
74 Santa Ana, CA D+
75 Charleston, WV D+
76 Oklahoma City, OK D+
77 Virginia Beach, VA D+
78 Winston-Salem, NC D+
79 Tulsa, OK D+
80 Albuquerque, NM D
81 Fort Worth, TX D
82 San Antonio, TX D
83 Jackson, MS D
84 Chesapeake, VA D
85 Jacksonville, FL D
86 Riverside, CA D
87 Memphis, TN D-
88 St. Petersburg, FL D-
89 Toledo, OH D-
90 Corpus Christi, TX D-

Least socially networked
91 Billings, MT D-
92 Fort Wayne, IN D-
93 Bridgeport, CT D-
94 Detroit, MI D-
95 Fresno, CA F
96 Bakersfield, CA F
97 Lubbock, TX F
98 Stockton, CA F
99 Laredo, TX F
100 El Paso, TX F