Where Baltimore Ranks Among America's Fittest Cities

BALTIMORE, MD —If you're celebrating Preakness weekend with a special Black-Eyed Susan from Dunkin' Donuts, then you're not doing your part to boost Baltimore in the rankings of the fittest cities in the U.S. No. 1 on the list is Arlington, Virginia, while Baltimore placed 78th on the list, according to a new report from the American College of Sports Medicine.

ACSM has released its 2018 American Fitness Index rankings, which ranks America's 100 largest cities on their community fitness "using a methodology that includes a composite of health behaviors, chronic diseases, and community infrastructure," states the summary report accompanying the rankings. This is the first year that the rankings have included 100 cities. In the past, it ranked the top 50 metropolitan areas.

"This year, we want to congratulate Arlington, Virginia as the number one fittest city in the U.S. Arlington led Minneapolis and Washington D.C. in the top three in 2018," the report says. "Achieving a balance of both healthy behaviors and community infrastructure, as well as ranking in the top 10 for 13 of the 33 indicators."

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Arlington achieved an impressive score of 77.7, edging out Minneapolis with 77.2. Washington, D.C. across the river had 74.0. Baltimore earned an overall score of 40.5 and didn't place in the top 10 in any of the sub-categories that made up the rankings.

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Criteria used to grade cities includes:

• low smoking rates
• residents meeting aerobic and strength activity guidelines
• low levels of residents with obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes
• number of farmers markets, local parks, dog parks, and tennis courts
• residents that live within a 10-minute walk to a park
• funding for public parks
• high use of public transportation

ACSM says that regular physical activity is one of the most important ways for people to both improve and maintain their health, and with obesity rates climbing to 40 percent of adults and obesity related medical costs exceeding $147 billion annually, it's important for cities to develop communities that encourage healthy behavior among residents.

ACSM says they used a rigorous methodology to determine their rankings.

"The 2018 Fitness Index was calculated using 33 indicators from reliable, publicly accessible, and up-to-date sources," the report states. "Indicators were combined to create sub-scores for personal health and community and environment indicators. Individual indicators were weighted relative to their impact on community fitness, converted to ranks, and combined in a straight-forward manner described in the methodology section on the website. The two sub-scores were then combined to form the total score."

Jenna Fisher/Patch