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October 24, 2007
Fattest and fittest cities
Why do some cities tend to have overweight residents and others fit ones?
A recent study uncovered that New York residents tended to live longer than the average American; why? some have speculated that certain personality types who like to exercise and are high achievers in whatever they do are drawn to New York; others suggest it is the fact that people in New York walk more because driving is so inefficient. There is probably some truth in both of these explanations.
Following up on a Planetizen posting about Philadelphia being the fattest and Ugliest City in America (their story not mine), I searched the internet for the list of fat cities and found a copy of a list published 2 years ago by Men’s Fitness magazine.
These are the top 10 Americas Fattest Cities:
1. Houston
2. Philadelphia
3. Detroit
4. Memphis
5. Chicago
6. Dallas
7. New Orleans
8. New York
9. Las Vegas
10. San AntonioAnd top 10 Fittest Cities
1. Seattle
2. Honolulu
3. Colorado Springs
4. San Francisco
5. Denver
6. Portland
7. Sacramento
8. Tucson
9. San Diego
10. Albuquerque
I’m not sure of the criteria used to assess each as Mens Fitness does not have this article on their website. Most surveys of “fat” or “obesity” levels tend to rely on people self reporting their weight and height. I’m not sure if the “fit” cities list are simply the “least fat” or if some other measure of fitness is involved.
Intriguingly, New York is on the “fat” category and not the fit category.
What’s also interesting is that there may be no correlation between transit use or commute times and being fat or fit. Chicago and New York appear on the top 10 fat cities list, and also have among the longest average commutes and highest uses of transit. Meanwhile Seattle ranks as the fittest city and also has one of the longest commuting times and highest rates of transit use; the story is similar for San Francisco.
If it is “built in” factors that help residents be fat or fit, it’s not time spent commuting or using transit (which often implies walking to and from transit stops).
Topics: transportation, urban lifestyles |
October 24th, 2007 at 1:54 pm
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