Hermosa Beach Scores High in Annual Health And Well-Being Index

HERMOSA BEACH, Calif. – Hermosa Beach and other L.A.-area beach cities scored historic highs on the Gallup National Health and Well-Being Index (WBI) despite national declines, indicating that the Beach Cities continue to be among the healthiest places to live in the nation, the Beach Cities Health District (BCHD) has revealed.

The combined 2025 score of 69.5 for Hermosa, Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach was the Beach Cities’ highest ever and substantially outpaced the national average score of 60.1, the BCHD said Feb. 2.

The WBI surveys adults nationwide on five elements of well-being: career, community, financial, physical and social. These five anchors contribute to the overall WBI score; a high score means a life well-lived. The Beach Cities have had improvements in all five elements of well-being in the past 10 years, amid national declines.

“The Beach Cities are outpacing the U.S. across most metrics, and their excellent improvement over time – despite a high starting point – has been impressive,” Dan Witters, Gallup’s research director of the Well-Being Index, said.

Gallup, on behalf of Beach Cities Health District (BCHD), has administered the WBI nine times since 2010. The 2025 WBI data was collected last fall and is weighted and adjusted based on demographic statistics and sample size.

Witters, who has managed the WBI since 2009, presented the WBI findings to the BCHD Board of Directors on Jan. 28.

The report also showed that awareness and public opinion of BCHD itself has improved over the past five years. Since 2020, awareness of the Health District has improved from 67% to 71%, with 57% expressing a favorable opinion of the District – a two-percentage point increase since 2020.

Among the other report’s other findings:

• Alcohol consumption has decreased in the Beach Cities since 2023 but is still 44% higher than the U.S. average, with Hermosa Beach having significantly higher alcohol consumption than Redondo Beach.

• Mental health, loneliness and incivility metrics are unchanged from two years ago but remain considerably better than the U.S. numbers overall.

• Above normal weight in the Beach Cities has decreased by 15 percentage points since 2010, and is 35% lower than the U.S.

More information about the Beach Cities WBI scores is available at www.bchd.org/impact.