While it’s up to us as individuals to eat better and exercise more to stay active, location matters when it comes to health. New research highlights the fact that where we live has a huge impact on our wellness, both physical and mental.
- WalletHub has compared 182 of the most populated U.S. cities to determine which ones are the healthiest.
- They ranked them in 43 key indicators of good health, broken down into four main categories:
- Health care - Including things like the cost of a doctor’s visit and mental health counselors per capita.
- Food - Including farmer’s markets per capita and fruit and vegetable consumption.
- Fitness - Including the average cost of a fitness club membership and the share of adults who engage in any physical activity.
- Green space - Including hiking trails per capita and acres of park land per capita.
- Based on those factors, San Francisco, California, has once again been named the healthiest city in America.
- It’s earned the honor several years in a row and consistently comes in first for food and green spaces.
- Columbia, Maryland, is number one for health care and Scottsdale, Arizona is first for fitness.
Top 10 Healthiest Cities in America for 2023
(Check out where your city ranks here)
- San Francisco, California
- Seattle, Washington
- Honolulu, Hawaii
- San Diego, California
- Salt Lake City, Utah
- Portland, Oregon
- Washington, D.C.
- Minneapolis, Minnesota
- Denver, Colorado
- Irvine, California
- As for the unhealthiest city, that is once again Brownsville, Texas, which ranks dead last for food and fitness.
2023’s 10 Unhealthiest Cities in America
- Brownsville, Texas
- Gulfport, Mississippi
- Shreveport, Louisiana
- Columbus, Georgia
- Augusta, Georgia
- Montgomery, Alabama
- Memphis, Tennessee
- Fayetteville, North Carolina
- Laredo, Texas
- Corpus Christi, Texas
Source: WalletHub