Salt Lake City ranked 5th healthiest city in the U.S.

The Salt Lake Metropolis skyline on a summer time night. Salt Lake Metropolis ranked fifth among the many healthiest cities in the USA.

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Regardless of Salt Lake Metropolis’s love for fry sauce and soiled sodas, the capital of the Beehive State was ranked the fifth healthiest metropolis within the U.S. in 2023, in response to a report from WalletHub.

Primarily based on some extent system rating the most important U.S. cities on their well being care, meals and inexperienced area, Salt Lake Metropolis ranked excessive on the listing, and has persistently for a couple of years. Based on USA Right this moment, Salt Lake Metropolis sat at No. 5 on the identical listing final yr, and in response to a totally different report, Salt Lake was ranked the healthiest metropolis within the nation in 2018.

An in depth listing of the healthiest and unhealthiest cities within the nation is included beneath.

What makes Salt Lake so wholesome?

WalletHub stories that Salt Lake Metropolis’s well being care fares nicely in opposition to different cities, rating Salt Lake and West Valley Metropolis tied at No. 5 for essentially the most dietitians and nutritionists per capita. Salt Lake ranked larger than the nationwide common in psychological well being counselors per capita, and positioned No. 7 for high quality of public well being programs and No. 8 for price of primary drugs.

Salt Lake’s proximity to hundreds of acres of wilderness and plentiful choices for indoor and out of doors recreation are a number of the many components that make town wholesome. Salt Lake ranked seventh within the nation for mountain climbing trails per capita — that is no shock, as there are dozens of hikes simply miles from downtown Salt Lake Metropolis, and in response to AllTrails, there are round 193 trails within the larger Salt Lake Metropolis space.

Salt Lakers appear to be conserving bodily energetic at a better price than different cities. Salt Lake ranks larger than the nationwide common in variety of bodily energetic adults (twenty eighth within the nation), and variety of health facilities per capita (4th within the nation), and health instructors per capita (seventeenth within the nation). Although we've got our justifiable share of unhealthy meals, Salt Lake has extra wholesome (twenty second within the nation) and gourmand (seventh within the nation) restaurant choices than a lot of the nation, in response to WalletHub’s knowledge.

How does the remainder of the nation rank?

Salt Lake Metropolis was crushed out by West Coast cities similar to San Francisco, Seattle, Honolulu and San Diego, respectively. Based on WalletHub, Western cities appear to fare higher in well being scores than Midwestern and Southern cities.

“Folks residing in lots of areas within the south are twice as prone to be people who smoke and be sedentary than folks residing in Utah,” Texas A&M Right this moment reported. Each Southern state, apart from Florida, has an weight problems price of over 30%, resulting in excessive damage and sickness charges, and decrease life expectancy.

Nevertheless, Texas A&M states that there are social causes that may make it harder to guide a wholesome life-style. Southern households on common have decrease incomes than the remainder of the nation, and in lots of of those states, entry to high quality and reasonably priced public well being care isn’t pretty much as good as in Western and Northeastern states.

Methodology: WalletHub compiled its listing of the healthiest and unhealthiest cities within the nation by weighing 182 U.S. cities in opposition to metrics together with wholesome meals choices, bodily exercise, public well being programs and entry to inexperienced and recreation areas.

Researchers at WalletHub compiled this report by analyzing knowledge from sources such because the U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Bureau of Labor, native county well being statistics, Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention and extra.

Healthiest cities within the U.S.

1. San Francisco, California.
2. Seattle, Washington.
3. Honolulu, Hawaii.
4. San Diego, California.
5. Salt Lake Metropolis, Utah.
6. Portland, Oregon.
7. Washington, D.C.
8. Minneapolis, Minnesota.
9. Denver, Colorado.
10. Irvine, California.
11. Boston, Massachusetts.
12. Scottsdale, Arizona.
13. Atlanta, Georgia.
14. Austin, Texas.
15. Portland, Maine.

Unhealthiest cities within the U.S.

1. Brownsville, Texas.
2. Gulfport, Mississippi.
3. Shreveport, Louisiana.
4. Columbus, Georgia.
5. Augustus, Georgia.
6. Montgomery, Alabama.
7. Memphis, Tennessee.
8. Fayetteville, North Carolina.
9. Laredo, Texas.
10. Corpus Christi, Texas.
11. Detroit, Michigan.
12. Fort Smith, Arkansas.
13. North Las Vegas, Nevada.
14. Charleston, West Virginia.
15. Huntington, West Virginia.