Falls Church Named Second Healthiest Community In 2022: U.S. News

FALLS CHURCH, VA — Falls Church is one of the healthiest communities in the United States, according to a new ranking by U.S. News & World Report.

The fifth annual report, released Wednesday in collaboration with CVS Health, highlights the healthiest 500 counties in the United States. The City of Falls Church ranked second in this year's rankings among the top 500.

"The City is proud to once again be recognized as one of the healthiest communities in the nation," said Mayor P. David Tarter in a statement. "We strive to improve the health, fitness and quality of life of our residents through a walkable, bikeable city with excellent recreational facilities, a popular Farmers Market, and world class schools."

"We send our congratulations, and sodas, chips and other junk food to Los Alamos, this year’s winner," Tarter joked.

To rank the counties, U.S. News looked at how nearly 3,000 U.S. counties performed in 89 metrics across 10 health-related categories, including an environmental category new to this year’s list. The new category was included to help account for the growing threat of climate change.

The categories are based on factors key to evaluating community health that were identified by the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics — a policy advisory board to the head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services — as part of its Measurement Framework for Community Health and Well-Being.

Falls Church received perfect 100 scores in the population health and education categories. The city has a life expectancy of 80.7 years, which is above the national median of 77.5 years. The percentage of the population without health insurance is 3.8 percent, below the 11 percent national median.

Other high scores for the city include 98 for the economy, 97 for infrastructure and 92 for community vitality. The lowest scores were 43 for housing and 48 for environment. In the environment category, the city's 15.3 extreme heat days per year is higher than the national median of 10.3 days.

For housing, the city has 30.8 percent of households spending at least 30 percent of income on housing, compared to 22.8 percent for the national median. In Falls Church, residents need 50 work hours to pay for affordable housing, above the national median of 40.6 hours.

U.S. News collected data for its rankings from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. Census Bureau, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, among others.

Read more about the rankings’ methodology.

These are the top 10 healthiest communities in the United States, according to the ranking:

1. Los Alamos County, New Mexico
2. Falls Church, Virginia
3. Douglas County, Colorado
4. Morgan County, Utah
5. Carver County, Minnesota
6. Sioux County, Iowa
7. Ozaukee County, Wisconsin
8. Hamilton County, Indiana
9. Broomfield County, Colorado
10. Delaware County, Ohio

U.S. News also ranked several subgroups of communities including high-performing and up-and-coming urban communities, as well as high-performing and up-and-coming rural communities.

Other key findings in the 2022 report:

• Four of the top 20 are in northern Virginia: No. 2 Falls Church, No. 12 Loudoun County, No. 13 Arlington County and No. 17 Fairfax County.
• For the second year in a row, Iowa counties are most heavily represented in the top 500, with 57 counties in the state making the list after 61 made it last year. Minnesota was next with 52 counties in the top 500.
• Rhode Island, Iowa and Minnesota were the states with the highest median overall scores across their counties, while Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas had the lowest median overall scores.
• Communities with lower scores in the mental health subcategory tend to have lower life expectancies, lower median household incomes and lower labor force participation, as well as higher rates of poverty.
• Rural communities are more likely to have higher shares of adults reporting frequent mental distress, and urban communities are more likely to have higher shares of Medicare beneficiaries diagnosed with depression.

See the full ranking for this year’s top 500 healthiest communities.