The 25 Best Cities for Active People

Ithaca is one of two metropolitan areas in New York state to rank on this list and the city’s rank is largely because of how many people choose to walk to work. No other metro area in the U.S. has a larger share of the workers’ population commuting this way. About 13.8% of workers in Ithaca walk to their jobs, compared to 2.6% nationwide.

Walking is a form of exercise, and with walkable streets it may not be surprising that Ithaca residents lead a generally active lifestyle. As many as 84.3% of the metro area’s adults report regularly exercising, a larger share than the 76.7% of adults nationwide.

The San Francisco metropolitan area is among the top five most walkable and bike-friendly urban places in the country. An estimated 98.9% of residents have access to places for physical activity such as gyms or recreation centers, a far larger share than the 84.2% of the population in the U.S. as a whole.

Having easy access to exercise facilities may help explain the large share of adults who report regular physical activity, at 85.2%, compared to 76.7% of adults nationwide.

Madison, Wisconsin, is home to some of the most physically active populations in the U.S. About 84.7% of adults report exercising on a regular basis, one of the largest shares of the 384 metro areas in the country and well above the national average of 76.7%.

Some of the benefits of exercise include both better physical and mental health. Madison’s adult residents report fewer unhealthy physical days and fewer unhealthy mental days than the average number of days adults nationwide do.

Workers of the larger Boston metropolitan area are more than twice as likely to walk to work as the typical American worker. People may have the incentive to walk more because of the city’s infrastructure, which includes pedestrian-friendly streets and neighborhoods. Boston ranks as the third most walkable city in the U.S. Additionally, it is also among the top 10 bike-friendly cities in the country.

Walking and biking are exercises that can help a person maintain overall well-being, and in Boston, only 12.6% of adults report being in poor or fair health, significantly less than the national average of 17.2%.

Boulder ranks as the best metro area for physically active people among all 384 metro areas in the country. It’s the only U.S. city where more than 90% of adults report exercising on a regular basis. This may be due in part to the fact that 96.2% of the population lives in close proximity to a gym, park, or other recreational facility.

Exercising and staying active can help maintain a healthy weight. In the Boulder metropolitan area, only 15.2% of adult residents are obese, the second smallest share of all metro areas in the U.S. after Santa Fe, New Mexico and about half the national adult obesity rate of 29.0%.