Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, is the fittest urban area in the United States, followed by Washington, D.C., and Boston. The ranking, done by the American College of Sports Medicine, considers a city's smoking rate, the percentage of regular exercisers, chronic health concerns and even the amount of farmer's markets that a city has. The cities that scored the lowest on the ranking were Oklahoma City, Louisville and Memphis.
More facts about fitness in America:
- Fitter cities tend to be more affluent and better educated, but contrary to popular belief, there is no distinctive correlation between a warm average city temperature and its fitness. Sunny Los Angeles, although it stereotypically is full of fit people, actually ranks 41st out of the 50 metro areas ranked.
- In terms of states, Colorado is the only state with an obesity rate of less than 20 percent. West Virginia is the state with the highest obesity rate — about 35 percent. In 38 of the 50 states, more than one-fourth of the people are considered obese.
- People in Northeastern and Western states tend to have the lowest obesity rates.