San Franciscans can often be seen jogging in parks, biking across the city, playing tennis, and generally living an active lifestyle in the city. Recently, a study that evaluated cities in the United States on healthiness ranked San Francisco as the healthiest city in the country.
The study compared more than 180 cities, including the 150 most populous cities. Each city was evaluated on multiple metrics across four key dimensions: healthcare, food, fitness, and green space. Some specific metrics include family doctors per capita, healthy restaurants, fitness instructors per capita, and more.
San Francisco was ranked first due to several key factors. SF has the second-lowest percentage of obese adults in the country at just 18%, and 100% of the population lives near a location where they can do physical activity. Plus, San Francisco heavily invests in parks, and is a very walkable city. Finally, San Francisco has plenty of healthy restaurants with gluten-free and vegetarian options.
Check out the top 10 healthiest cities here:
- San Francisco, CA
- Honolulu, HI
- Seattle, WA
- Salt Lake City, UT
- San Diego, CA
- Portland, OR
- Denver, CO
- Minneapolis, MN
- Washington, DC
- Huntington Beach, CA
Honolulu ranked second, notably due to the mental health of residents and a high percentage of adults with health insurance. Fellow West Coast city Seattle ranked third due to having the highest physical activity rate in the country. Seattle is also notably one of the greenest cities in the country.
You can read the full study from WalletHub about the healthiest cities in the country here.