The 10 Healthiest U.S. Metro Areas: 2023

People in the healthiest U.S. cities may be feeling a lot healthier. The government tells the story in new survey results for 105 metropolitan areas. In those areas, the median percentage of people who reported being in excellent health increased to 19.4%, from about 17.3% in 2019. For a look at the 10 "metropolitan statistical areas," or big city regions, with the highest percentage of adults who reported being in excellent health in 2021, see the gallery above. For data on all 105 metro areas, see the table below. What it means: The new survey numbers suggest that health-based wealth may have increased about between 2019 and 2021, possibly because of the effects of work-at-home rules and other changes related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Figuring out how to include clients' subjective feelings about their health in retirement planning and other forms of financial planning is tricky, but it might be good to find tactful ways to remind clients that the returns they earn from eating right, exercising, avoiding tobacco and flossing their gums may ultimately be more helpful in their later years than the returns they get from optimizing investment asset allocations. The survey: The numbers here come from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System program. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention interviews about 400,000 adults for the program each year, to come up with ideas for helping people improve their health. Financial professionals can use BRFSS data in reports, infographics and social media posts free of charge, without worrying about copyright restrictions. BRFSS managers released the newest results in September. The freshest metro area numbers are for 2021, and the freshest state-level numbers are for 2022. To create the table here, we used the numbers for areas classified as metropolitan areas and metropolitan divisions. We included only areas that had excellent health figures available for both 2019 and 2021. The list of areas with numbers missing for one or both years includes Knoxville, Tennessee, and many communities in Florida, such as the Miami area and the Tampa, Florida, area.

U.S. Excellent Health Levels