Napa Makes List Of Top 25 Most Fitness-Friendly Metro Areas In US

NAPA VALLEY, CA — A recent study had some good news for Napans who made a New Year's resolution to get into shape. The Napa metro area ranked in the top 25 places in the United States to get physically fit in 2021, according to SmartAsset.

Napa came in at No. 17 in a study by SmartAsset that analyzed 301 metro areas to find the most fitness-friendly places nationwide. It was one of four California metro areas in the Top 25 and seven in the Top 50 on the 2021 list from SmartAsset, a financial technology company that provides personal finance advice on the web.

To compile the rankings, SmartAsset examined data from five metrics:

• The percentage of residents who walk or bike to work as reported by the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2019 1-year American Community Survey.
• The concentration of fitness professionals — dietitians, nutritionists, recreational therapists, athletic trainers, fitness trainers and aerobics instructors — per 10,000 workers using May 2019 data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Occupational Employment Statistics.
• The concentration of fitness establishments — sporting goods stores and fitness and recreational sports centers — using data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2018 Metro Area Business Patterns Survey.
• The percentage of restaurants that serve only fast food, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2018 Metro Area Business Patterns Survey.
• The average hourly wage of personal trainers according to May 2019 data from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment Statistics. (Given the limited availability of direct data about the cost to consumers for personal training services, this metric acted as a proxy to indicate the relative affordability of hiring a personal trainer in a given metro area, according to SmartAsset.)

The Napa Metro area scored 86.74 out of a possible 100 points. According to the study:

• 4.7 percent of Napa area commuters walk or bike;
• there are 43 fitness professionals per 10,000 workers in the Napa area;
• there are 90 fitness establishments in the Napa area;
• 29 percent of Napa-area restaurants serve only fast food; and
• $22.17 is the average hourly wage for Napa-area personal trainers.

Six other California metro areas joined Napa on SmartAsset's list of the Top 50 Most Fitness-Friendly Places for 2021:

• Santa Cruz-Watsonville, No. 6
• San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, No. 12
• Chico, No. 19 (tied)
• Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, No. 31
• Santa Rosa-Petaluma, No. 43
• San Francisco-Oakland-Berkeley, No. 50

The company noted that with the arrival of the COVID-19 vaccine, communities including Napa will hopefully be able to have gyms up and running at full capacity soon.

Read the full report here.