Illustration by Booblgum. / iStock.
LOOK AROUND, Washingtonians: You and the DC residents jogging past you have helped to make DC the 9th healthiest city in the country, when compared with 150 of the most populous in the nation. We must bow in deference to No. 1 healthy city San Francisco, and No. 2 Salt Lake City. But we can hold our heads high ahead of No. 149 Brownsville, Texas, and No. 150, Detroit. (That’s even though Brownsville boasts the third-cheapest fitness club memberships in the nation.)
WalletHub.com, which announced its 2017 rankings last week, compared all sorts of metrics, such as “cost of doctor visit” and “fruit and vegetable consumption” and “fitness clubs per capita.” DC ranks high in overall health and fitness. And—surprise!—we’re nowhere near the top when it comes to being a stressed-out population (DC is only the 107th most stressed-out of the 150 cities).
Here’s how to read the numbers below: There are four major categories, Health Care, Food, Fitness and Green Space.
Then there are the particulars. For the cost of a medical visit, DC is No. 20, meaning a DC doc or hospital will charge more than one in Jacksonville, Florida, or Laredo, Texas, the two least expensive cities, but less than Nos. 1 through 19. DC’s overall health ranking of 9 includes cost but also the “premature death rate,” the number of family doctors per capita and other metrics.
So let’s hold our heads up high—but make plans to dethrone No. 8 Honolulu next year.
—Mary Carpenter
Source: WalletHub.com
