The American College of Sports Medicine has released the latest list of the fittest cities in the United States. How does your city measure up?
The fittest city in the United States is the Twin Cities of Minneapolis-St.Paul based on the survey done by the American College of Sports Medicine. The ASCM looked into factors such as access to health care, community assets, and personal health habits to declare the two Minnesota cities as the fittest among 50 of the biggest metros in the country.
Minneapolis-St.Paul topped the annual American Fitness Index for the third consecutive year. The list released, Wednesday, included the cities of Washington, D.C., Portland, San Francisco, and Denver completing the top five.
Boston, Sacramento, Seattle, Hartford and San Jose filled the rest of the spots on the top 10.
"What Minneapolis has done brilliantly is put their resources where residents can use them effectively to maintain a high level of physical activity," explained Walt Thompson, chair of the board of experts that created the index, in an interview with USA Today.
"We really believe that if people don't have the environment to exercise, they probably won't," he added.
The 2013 American Fitness Index report revealed that Minneapolis-St.Paul had a total score of 78.2 to rank it on top of the other cities. The population of the Twin Cities exhibited a higher percentage of moderate physical activity compared to the other cities in the list. The fittest city in the U.S. also recorded lower death rates due to diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
The Minneapolis-St.Paul area also has considerable amount of parks, farmer's markets, playgrounds and recreational centers on a per capita basis. The local authorities have spent well to develop the open spaces and marked the importance of physical education classes for the youngsters.
The study also noted that people in the fittest metro in the U.S. had more of its population using the public transportation, biking, or walking to work.
However, experts advise the people of Minneapolis should cut down on smoking and should increase their consumption of fruits and vegetables on a daily basis.
The ACSM collaborated with the Indiana University School of Family Medicine and a panel of experts to determine the methodology of the study. It has been releasing the American Fitness Index annually since 2008.
Below is a snapshot of the AFI Overall ranking:
