The team at SmartAsset wanted to know where Americans are most and least healthy in 2024, so they compared 100 of the largest US cities on a range of indicators โ including mental wellbeing, obesity, drinking, drug deaths, sleep quality and more.
The healthiest city in the country is San Jose, which ranks highest in four of the study's 10 health metrics. Residents of the California city report having an average of 27.52 physically healthy days out of 30, just 7.4 percent of adults smoke and only 18.5 percent are obese. The only category San Jose scored poorly in was air pollution, where it ranks 60th.
People are least healthy in New Orleans, Louisiana, where there's both the worst rate of drug overdose deaths (72.45 per 1,000 residents) and the worst rate of poor mentally healthy days (6.5 per 30) overall. The city also ranks fourth-worst for both sleep sufficiency and diabetes prevalence.
More than 44 percent of people are obese in Laredo, Texas, the second-unhealthiest city in the study. Toledo, Ohio, follows closely behind in the obesity category, with a rate of almost 42 percent.
While Portland, Oregon, is the country's 23rd-healthiest city, it ranks fifth-lowest for mental wellbeing, with residents self-reporting just 24.23 mentally healthy days out of 30.
Via SmartAsset.
[Image credit: Yaroslav Muzychenko]