For the second year in a row, Washington, D.C., has come out on top of a national ranking of the fittest U.S. cities, although Americans are exercising less than ever overall, researchers say.
Following our capital were Minneapolis-St. Paul, San Diego, Sacramento and San Francisco, according to the annual American Fitness Index prepared by the American College of Sports Medicine and the Anthem Foundation.
At the other end of the spectrum, Indianapolis had the dubious honor of being ranked the least fit and least active city in the U.S., followed by Memphis and Oklahoma City.
"The AFI is two things: a measure of how healthy a metro area is today, and a call to action for urban and suburban leaders to design infrastructures that promote active lifestyles and lead to positive health outcomes," says Walter Thompson, chair of the AFI Advisory Board.
The AFI ranks the 50 largest metropolitan statistical areas in the United States.
The cities were ranked using criteria such as the availability of healthy outdoor activity options — access to public parks was added to this year's survey — along with reported rates of smoking, obesity and diabetes.
"Our goal is to provide communities and residents with resources that help them assess, respond and achieve a better, healthier life," says Thompson, a professor of health and kinesiology at Georgia State University.
Many U.S. cities have used the AFI data in setting policies and urban planning practices.
St. Louis, for example, moved up from its 2014 ranking of 41 to 30 this year, due in large part to increases in recreational facilities for residents and opening up more public parks, researchers for the AFI said.
A standout finding of the survey was that the more pedestrian-friendly a city was, the higher it ranked on the fitness scale, researchers said.
"How walkable is your city?" asked Thompson. "In Washington, D.C., 95 percent of the population live within a 10-minute walk to a park."
In comparison, only 31 percent of residents of Indianapolis, at the bottom of the fitness list, have the same access to a public park, he pointed out.
That was reflected in the levels of funding for parks, he says; Washington spends $287 per person on parks annually, while the figure in Indianapolis is $24.
That proved to hold throughout the ranking, Thompson says.
"All of our top-ranked cities all spend more money on parks than our lowest ranked cities," he notes.
This year's AFI was not without its bad news; the nation's overall fitness has declined in the last year, as the survey found an 11.3 percent decrease in the number of people who say they've exercised in the last 30 days, and it recorded a 7.8 percent increase in diabetes and death rates.
The Top 10 Fittest Cities:
1. Washington, D.C.
2. Minneapolis-St. Paul
3. San Diego
4. San Francisco
5. Sacramento
6. Denver
7. Portland
8. Seattle
9. Boston
10. San Jose
