The 2021 American Fitness Index Says These are Top 10 Fittest and Most Bikeable Cities
The 2021 American Fitness Index is out with the top 10 fittest cities and top 10 most bikeable cities.
Arlington, Virginia, has claimed the number one spot for the fittest city in America for the fourth year running. And Minneapolis, Minnesota, has the highest bike score.
A fit city is a place where intent meets opportunity. It’s a place where residents want to be active and healthy, and their community supports them by providing open spaces, clean air, bike paths, recreational facilities, and plenty of opportunities to buy fresh, nourishing food.
Arlington, Virginia, has claimed the number one spot in America for the fourth year running, according to the American Fitness Index, compiled by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and the Anthem Foundation. Arlington residents reported the most physical activity in the U.S. with 85.7 percent exercising in the previous month.
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The Fitness Index also measures nearly three dozen other indicators that represent personal and community health, including personal health behaviors like exercising regularly, meeting the aerobic and strength activity guidelines, bicycling or walking to work, eating the suggested servings of fruits and vegetables, sleeping 7+ hours a night, and not smoking.
The Fitness Index also assesses health outcomes, meaning how many people in a community are in excellent or very good health, how many have cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and other metabolic disease, and the fatality rate of the region.
Then the Fitness Index looks at the community itself, ranking it according to air quality, food insecurity (i.e., access to healthy foods), walkability, access to recreational facilities like swimming pools, tennis courts, rec centers, and parks and playgrounds, as well as how much municipal money is allotted to policy and funding for parks, safe streets, and physical education.
When all the results were tallied, America’s fittest cities in 2021 were:
1. Arlington, Virginia
2. Minneapolis, Minnesota
3. Seattle, Washington
4. Denver, Colorado
5. Madison, Wisconsin
6. Washington, D.C.
7. St. Paul, Minnesota
8. Irvine, California
9. Portland, Oregon
10. Atlanta, Georgia
Bikeability is also a major factor for being classified one of the fittest cities. The Fitness Index assigns each city a Bike Score based on access to safe, interconnected, and well-lit bikeways and community policies that prioritize cyclists when planning a city’s infrastructure. The top 10 cities with the highest bike scores according to the Fitness Index are:
1. Minneapolis, Minnesota
2. Portland, Oregon
3. Chicago, Illinois
4. Denver, Colorado
5. San Francisco, California
6. Arlington, Virginia
7. Boston, Massachusetts
8. Jersey City, New Jersey, and Seattle, Washington (tie)
10. New York, New York
To see where your city ranks and how it compares to others in the categories measured, check out the ACSM American Fitness Index Rankings’ online city comparison tool.
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