Life expectancy in the U.S. is declining after decades on the rise. Research on the decline indicates "working age" Americans between 25 and 64 have been dying at higher rates. These deaths are being attributed to drug overdoses, suicides, obesity,  high blood pressure, and alcohol-related diseases,(among other health issues).

Numerous experts agree that there is a link between the increasing death rate, socioeconomic inequality, and economic hardship. It may also matter greatly where you choose to live when considering lifespan.

The sort of access people have to affordable medical care, healthy food, and fitness/exercise facilities has a real impact on quality and length of life.

WalletHub took all of these factors into account when ranking the top 174 most populated cities in the U.S. in terms of health status. They considered a wide range of factors gathered into four major categories:

  • Health care - Quality of hospital systems, number of family doctors, cost of medical and dental visits, cost of medicines, insurance coverage and costs, death rates, access to mental health counseling
  • Food - Number of Farmer's Markets and healthy restaurants, number of obese residents, inadequate fruit and vegetable consumption
  • Fitness - Number of fitness and weight loss centers, cost of fitness club memberships, the share of adults who engage in physical activity
  • Green Space - Number of walking, hiking, biking and running trails, quality of park system and recreation access

After all the statistics were crunched, it was determined that the healthiest city in the U.S. is San Francisco, California. The least healthy city is Brownsville, Texas.

Sioux Falls was in the top third at 57th. We scored particularly high (6th) in the Health Care category, but, got considerably lower marks in the Food (102) and Green Space (109) categories.

You can see the full report at WalletHub.

 

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