Arlington Named 'America's Fittest City' For 7th Straight Year

ARLINGTON, VA — Arlington County has been named “America’s Fittest City” for the seventh straight year in the annual American Fitness Index rankings published by the American College of Sports Medicine and the Elevance Health Foundation.

ACSM and Elevance Health looked at the 33-based indicators for the 100 of America's largest cities to determine the Fitness Index results. This year's rankings show that more Americans are walking and biking to work. In addition, park expenditures are up and food insecurity has improved slight.

“As an organization that is committed to, connected to, and invested in our communities, the Elevance Health Foundation has pledged to strengthen our communities and address health inequities in our country," said Shantanu Agrawal, M.D., chief health officer of Elevance Health. "Similarly, ACSM works to extend and enrich lives through the power of movement. The Fitness Index is the intersection between our aspirational paths, bringing our unified visions to life as we provide practical resources to communities.”

The 10 fittest cities on America's Fittest City list are:

1. Arlington, Virginia
2. Washington, DC
3. Seattle, Washington
4. San Francisco, California
5. Madison, Wisconsin
6. Minneapolis, Minnesota
7. Denver, Colorado
8. Atlanta, Georgia
9. Irvine, California
10. St. Paul, Minnesota

The top three cities in the 2024 Fitness Index posted strong performances in distinctly different areas:

• Arlington ranked first in community/environmental indicators and placed fourth in personal health indicators. Despite ranking fourth in personal health indicators, Arlingtonians posted the highest rate of exercising in the previous month (87.8 percent). Arlington residents were first in sleeping seven or more hours of a night and had the lowest percentage of smoking (3.4 percent) on the list.
• Washington, D.C. residents ranked the best at eating their fruits and vegetables. District residents were also second among those who eat two or more fruits a day (37 percent) and were second best among residents of cities in consuming three or more vegetables a day (21.4 percent), according to the index. DC also ranked among the top five cities in exercising in the previous month, use of public transportation and biking/walking to work.
• Seattle, Washington residents had the third-highest rate of exercising in the previous month and spent the most for park expenditures at a rate of $321 per capita.

Arlington wasn't the only Virginia city to score high on the 2024 Fitness Index.

• Chesapeake earned the highest score among the 100 cities for the lowest percentage in terms of food security (5.8 percent). That's compared to an average of 10.4 percent for the other cities on the list.
• Norfolk was the city with the most basketball hoops per 10,000 residents, with 17.6 percent compared to the average number of hoops among the other cities, 3.6 percent.
• Richmond was the city with the most tennis courts per 10,000 residents, with 5.9 percent compared to the average number of hoops among the other cities, 1.8 percent.

The full rankings and scores on the 2024 Fitness Index are available online.