This Metropolitan City Is The Healthiest In East Coast America (And It's Not New York)

When you think of America's healthiest cities, places like Berkeley, California, with its great weather and incredible outdoor spaces, may come to mind. But according to analysis by WalletHub, there is one East Coast city that pulls together all the magic ingredients for healthy living. While other major metropolitan areas like New York City or Boston might be known for their green spaces and top-notch healthcare, Washington, D.C., is the only East Coast city to make the top 10 on WalletHub's list of the healthiest cities in America.

It may not be the city you expected, but our nation's capital came in No. 9 on the list, just ahead of Huntington Beach, California, and just behind Minneapolis, Minnesota. To come to this conclusion, WalletHub analyzed 182 major cities in the United States and looked at four core characteristics: healthcare, food, fitness, and green space. Across these four characteristics, 41 different factors were included and given different weights. These factors include quality of the public health system and rates of insurance coverage, access to healthy foods and farmers markets per capita, average price of a gym membership, hiking trails per capita, and quality of parks.

Washington, D.C., rose in the rankings due to its consistent scores across all categories, particularly in food, fitness, and green space. In fact, according to the Trust for Public Land, 99% of the city's residents live near a public park, and the city's park system has ranked the top in the nation for the past five years. The city also invests in its 699 parks, spending more than twice the national average per capita to ensure that residents have access to amenities like basketball hoops, playgrounds, splashpads, and recreation and senior centers.

Washington, D.C.'s parks aren't the only thing that helped it rise to the top. It's also a haven for clean eating, with more than 50 farmers markets across the city. This includes the Sunday markets in the vibrant Dupont Circle neighborhood and the historic Eastern Market, which has been a destination for shoppers since 1873. In fact, access to all this fresh food is just one reason why D.C. was named the top metropolitan area in terms of longevity.

The city also makes it easy to keep fit, with over 30 fitness centers run by the Department of Parks and Recreation. Not only are they found across all eight wards of the city, but they are free for residents, allowing anyone, regardless of income, to stay in shape. Overall, Washington, D.C., is a fit city, with nearly 85% of adults participating in some sort of physical activity according to 2022 data by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This is well above the national average, as 24.5% of all adults in the U.S. claim they don't engage in any exercise or leisure activity.

For healthcare, the D.C. area is home to highly ranked hospitals like Inova Fairfax Hospital, which is located in the serene city of Falls Church, Virginia, and the Children's National Hospital. While it's important to remember that WalletHub's rankings focus exclusively on personal health, and don't account for crime and safety statistics, the study is an incredible way to gain a different perspective on a city that's always making headlines.