North America’s Healthiest Cities: Where do you rank?

Healthy cities.

When you are in one, you just know you are. The city is alive, vibrant, active, and clean.

There are healthy restaurant options and gyms around every corner. There are abundant bike paths and jogging routes.

People seem happy and content with their lives.

In 2008, Best Health Magazine ranked Canada’s Top 20 Healthiest metropolitan cities:

1. Vancouver

 
2. Victoria
3. Calgary
4. Edmonton
5. Ottawa
6. Quebec
7. Halifax
8. Saskatoon
9. Summerside
10. Toronto
11. Winnipeg
12. Montreal
13. Charlottetown
14. Brandon
15. Corner Brook
16. St. John’s
17. Regina
18. Moncton
19. Saint John
20. Lunenburg

The cities were scored on various criteria such as alcohol use, air quality, amount of fruits and vegetables eaten, life expectancy, stress, # overweight, etc. You can read all the stats here.

Canadians: Do you live in or near one of the healthiest cities? Do you agree with the study results? Why or why not? Should your city be on that list? Or do you think you live in an unhealthy city?

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The AARP Magazine, also selected the United State’s Top 10 healthiest cities in 2008:

1. Ann Arbor, Michigan

2. Honolulu, Hawaii

3. Madison, Wisconsin

4. Santa Fe, New Mexico

5. Fargo, North Dakota

6. Boulder, Colorado

7. Charlottesville, Virginia

8. Minneapolis, St. Paul, Bloomington, Minnesota

9. San Fran, California

10. Naples, Florida

They also listed 9 cities that were noteworthy…

11. Sioux Falls, South Dakota

12. Boston, Cambridge, Quincy, Massachusetts

13. St Cloud, Minnesota

14. Bridgeport, Stamford, Norwalk, Connecticut

15. Santa Barbara, Santa Maria, California

16. Burlington, Vermont

17. Provo-orem, Utah

18. Portland, Maine

19. Fort Collins, Loveland, Colorado

I thought this chart was interesting to read:

US Readers: Do you live in a healthy city? Is your city healthy but not listed? Or do you think you have an unhealthy city? What needs to change?

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For those of you outside of US and Canada, you can chime in on your city too!

I hope to do a post on the WORLD’s Healthiest cities too!