Story at a glance
- San Francisco was ranked the healthiest city in the U.S. in a new WalletHub analysis.
- Brownsville, Texas came in last place in the ranking.
- San Francisco earned the title of healthiest city in part due to its population’s low obesity rate and easy access to green spaces.
Most Americans are unhealthy, but location matters when it comes to just how unhealthy.
A new WalletHub analysis of 182 of the largest cities in the U.S. and found that San Francisco, Calif. Is the healthiest city in the country.
WalletHub analysts compared the cities across four areas — healthcare, food, fitness and green space — to come up with their ranking.
Super anecdotal but I was there a few months ago and holy shit healthy is not a word I’d have used to describe that place. Except I guess they don’t count the hundreds of unhoused and people suffering from addiction, just the ones working in the high rises who can afford the $14 smoothies and $28 poke bowls.
I do wonder how they tracked this metric. Like yeah, SF has health food places on just about every corner and it’s easy to get by without needing to have a car so most people walk if they are able to, but the people out on that street range from neo-hippy yoga bunnies to individuals permanently confined to a mobility scooter. If they are only looking up medical information for people who can afford to both live in San Francisco and go to the doctor to get things like a BMI done so that the results could be collected, then the results are probably going to be wildly skewed towards the healthy, fit, energetic techbros and other such people who are able to afford that kind of healthy lifestyle in spite of the extreme cost of living.
You can read the methodology: https://wallethub.com/edu/healthiest-cities/31072