DC-NoVa Ranked Fittest Metro Area in the United States

The American College of Sports Medicine has just released their 2016 rankings of the fittest cities in the United States, and the Washington, D.C. and Northern Virginia metropolitan area came out on top.

It's actually the third year in a row that the D.C. area has been No. 1 on the American Fitness Index ever since it knocked Minneapolis off the top spot in 2014. D.C. scored a 77.9 this year compared to 2nd place Minneapolis, which got a 76.7. Denver was 3rd with 72.6, and Portland, San Francisco and Seattle took the next three spots with sub-70 scores.

The ranking includes not just D.C., but also Arlington and Alexandria. ACSM ranked cities according to a fairly complex algorithm that took data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), which is provided by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as well as a number of government surveys. The American Fitness Index looks at data on physical activity or exercise in the last 30 days, how often people eat fruits and vegetables on a daily basis, what percent current smoke, how many acres of parkland there are and the number of golf courses, to name just a few examples of dozens of criteria.

The two main categories of criteria were personal health and community health. The D.C. area was ranked No. 2 and No. 3 in those categories, respectively.

On the personal health side, D.C. residents were well below the AFI's target goal for death rate per 100,000 for cardiovascular disease, posting 146.8 versus the target goal of 167.1.

On the community side, D.C. was especially strong when it came to parks, with a whopping 96.3 percent of residents living within a 10 minute walk to a park -- compared to the target goal of just 63.8 percent -- as well as the fact that the local government spends an average of $346 per resident on parks, compared to just $101.80 for the target goal.

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