Story at a glance
- San Francisco was ranked the healthiest city in the U.S. in a new WalletHub analysis.
- Brownsville, Texas came in last place in the ranking.
- San Francisco earned the title of healthiest city in part due to its population’s low obesity rate and easy access to green spaces.
Most Americans are unhealthy, but location matters when it comes to just how unhealthy.
A new WalletHub analysis of 182 of the largest cities in the U.S. and found that San Francisco, Calif. Is the healthiest city in the country.
WalletHub analysts compared the cities across four areas — healthcare, food, fitness and green space — to come up with their ranking.
It’s essentially a measure of income and race. San Francisco has high incomes, and high Asian population. Obviously richer people live longer, and Asians have lower rates of obesity and longer lives in average.
Brownsville is much poorer, and pretty much entirely Hispanic. Obesity and poverty rates probably much higher.
It seems like it was intentional by the authors not to control for it, which I think is fair depending on what you are trying to show, but it’s irresponsible not to mention it.