When it comes to Healthiest and Unhealthiest Cities in America, California boasts three of the healthiest

San Francisco, San Diego and Irvine are listed in the Top 10 cities in a newly released report on 2021’s Healthiest & Unhealthiest Cities in America.

As Adam McCann writes, location matters when it comes to health. Some places promote wellness by expanding access to nutritious food and recreational facilities. Others strive to keep healthcare costs affordable for everyone or keep parks clean and well-maintained. Of course, the most pressing health issue in the past year has been the COVID-19 pandemic, and how well a city handles it can have a huge impact on the wellness of its residents, both physically and mentally.

When a city doesn’t take care of these many important issues, it can be hard to keep up good health. After all, the cost of care in the U.S. is rising and life expectancy has taken a huge hit during the pandemic. Plus, there are so many sources of health advice online that it can be difficult for a person to figure out what is legitimate and what is just a fad.

With health care costs rising and the U.S. facing one of the worst health crises in decades with the COVID-19 pandemic, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on 2021’s Healthiest & Unhealthiest Cities in America, as well as accompanying videos.

To identify the places where health is a priority, WalletHub compared more than 180 of the largest U.S. cities across 44 key metrics. The data set ranges from the cost of a medical visit to fruit and vegetable consumption to COVID-19 cases.

Healthiest Cities
1. San Francisco, CA
2. Seattle, WA
3. Portland, OR
4. San Diego, CA
5. Honolulu, HI
6. Washington, DC
7. Austin, TX
8. Irvine, CA
9. Portland, ME
10. Denver, CO

Unhealthiest Cities
173. Lubbock, TX
174. Huntington, WV
175. Jackson, MS
176. Fort Smith, AR
177. Montgomery, AL
178. Memphis, TN
179. Shreveport, LA
180. Gulfport, MS
181. Laredo, TX
182. Brownsville, TX

Key Stats

  • Columbia, Maryland, has the lowest share of physically unhealthy adults, 7.80 percent, which is 2.7 times lower than in Detroit, the city with the highest at 20.70 percent.
  • Laredo, Texas, has the lowest cost per doctor’s visit, $56.00, which is 3.6 times less expensive than in Juneau, Alaska, the city with the highest at $202.50.
  • Burlington, Vermont, and South Burlington, Vermont, have the lowest share of adults eating fruit less than once daily, 30.40 percent, which is 1.7 times lower than in Gulfport, Mississippi, the city with the highest at 51.80 percent.
  • Glendale, Arizona, and Lewiston, Maine, have the lowest average monthly cost for a fitness-club membership, $15.00, which is 7.1 times less expensive than in Juneau, Alaska, the city with the highest at $107.14.

To view the full report and your city’s rank, click here:

 

Image Sources

  • Map of Southern California: Pixaby