10 Healthiest U.S. Metro Areas
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Clients in some parts of the country get what amounts to a health dividend.
One place to look for information about geographic wellness assets is the website of the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention program that interviews about 400,000 U.S. residents ages 18 and older every year.
Interviewers ask many general and specific questions about the participants’ health, and one is about the participants’ assessment of their own health.
For a look at the 10 metropolitan areas where the highest percentage of survey participants described their own health as excellent, see the gallery above.
For data on all metropolitan areas, and some micropolitan areas, included in this analysis, see the table below.
What It Means
Good health can help make any financial problems a little more bearable, and it may increase clients’ ability to earn a good living.
In an area where many clients are in great health, financial advisors and insurance agents may have an easier time helping clients get products that involve medical underwriting, such as life insurance, disability insurance and long-term care insurance.
They may also have an easier time helping clients recognize, and use annuities and other arrangements to prepare for, the possibility that they could live into their 100s, or even into their 110s.
But advisors and agents in areas with high self-reported levels of excellent health also face another concern: the possibility that people in some areas are more likely to exaggerate how healthy they are.
In those areas, insurance agents might be more likely to face clients who expect to get super-preferred life insurance premiums and barely qualify to buy coverage at any price.
When financial professionals believe that people in an area are more likely to give a survey team unrealistically cheerful assessments of their health, they may have to spend more time helping clients notice, acknowledge, talk about and manage unpleasant realities.
The Methods
The CDC’s BRFSS asks general status questions along with questions about matters such as arthritis and binge drinking.
The goal of the program is to help federal and state programs manage public health programs.
For this article, we used BRFSS city data. Users can also get state-level, county-level and ZIP Code-level BRFSS data. The newest BRFSS city results now available in ordinary spreadsheets are for 2020.
The Pandemic Effect
Insurers and others with an interest in public health will use BRFSS data, and data from similar programs, to assess how the COVID-19 pandemic and pandemic side effects — such as lockdowns and vaccination programs — have affected people’s health.
One counterintuitive early finding: In 2020, the pandemic and pandemic control efforts might have improved Americans’ health, or at least their attitudes about their health.
The percentage of BRFFS survey takers who described their health as excellent increased to about 21.7% in 2020. That was up from 17.6% the year before, and up from 19.1% in 2015.
U.S. Excellent Health Levels
Metropolitan area
Population in 2020
Percentage of adults who said that they’re in excellent health
2020
2015
Akron, OH
701,305
19.3%
19.5%
Albany-Schenectady-Troy, NY
898,561
24.3%
18.4%
Albuquerque, NM
917,179
22.4%
20.0%
Anchorage, AK
398,097
23.3%
22.1%
Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Roswell, GA
6,101,146
22.7%
22.3%
Augusta-Richmond County, GA-SC
611,720
13.5%
17.9%
Austin-Round Rock, TX
2,299,125
24.9%
20.9%
Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD
2,841,691
24.8%
20.2%
Baton Rouge, LA
870,178
19.1%
16.9%
Billings, MT
184,567
19.6%
18.4%
Birmingham-Hoover, AL
1,114,710
19.6%
15.7%
Bismarck, ND
133,666
16.5%
15.4%
Boise City, ID
769,581
26.2%
21.7%
Boston, MA
2,052,435
26.9%
21.7%
Buffalo-Cheektowaga-Niagara Falls, NY
1,165,506
21.9%
18.9%
Burlington-South Burlington, VT
225,563
23.4%
22.3%
Cambridge-Newton-Framingham, MA
2,438,640
28.0%
23.3%
Camden, NJ
1,287,673
25.5%
21.6%
Cedar Rapids, IA
276,446
18.1%
–
Charleston, WV
257,840
13.8%
14.3%
Charleston-North Charleston, SC
802,961
22.6%
22.1%
Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC
2,669,665
24.1%
21.7%
Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI
9,601,605
23.0%
18.7%
Cincinnati, OH-KY-IN
2,257,667
20.6%
19.5%
Cleveland-Elyria, OH
2,085,357
21.6%
18.9%
Colorado Springs, CO
756,573
26.3%
19.4%
Columbus, OH
2,141,042
23.0%
18.1%
Dallas-Plano-Irving, TX
5,148,585
22.5%
21.8%
Davenport-Moline-Rock Island, IA-IL
383,526
19.7%
–
Dayton-Kettering, OH
813,475
18.8%
16.6%
Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO
2,969,289
26.8%
20.7%
Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA
710,843
20.1%
18.4%
Duluth, MN-WI
291,278
15.9%
19.2%
El Paso, TX
869,289
16.5%
17.6%
Fargo, ND-MN
250,219
23.6%
21.8%
Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, AR-MO
520,354
24.2%
15.4%
Fort Worth-Arlington, TX
2,513,740
23.7%
21.9%
Frederick-Gaithersburg-Rockville, MD
1,333,980
26.9%
–
Grand Island, NE
76,885
21.7%
17.4%
Grand Rapids-Wyoming, MI
1,088,203
18.8%
18.1%
Greenville-Anderson-Mauldin, SC
930,165
15.4%
21.1%
Gulfport-Biloxi-Pascagoula, MS
416,312
20.4%
14.7%
Hagerstown-Martinsburg, MD-WV
294,277
18.8%
15.5%
Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT
1,211,505
25.3%
22.5%
Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX
7,137,747
23.9%
17.0%
Huntington-Ashland, WV-KY-OH
359,100
12.7%
14.0%
Idaho Falls, ID
158,258
24.9%
19.6%
Indianapolis-Carmel-Anderson, IN
2,113,700
20.8%
20.0%
Jackson, MS
590,626
16.1%
19.4%
Jacksonville, FL
1,611,388
17.8%
20.3%
Kansas City, MO-KS
2,193,578
19.8%
18.9%
Knoxville, TN
881,628
20.9%
18.7%
Lafayette, LA
478,077
17.1%
–
Lebanon, NH-VT
143,242
24.6%
–
Lincoln, NE
340,515
24.1%
18.8%
Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway, AR
748,434
21.2%
11.7%
Logan, UT-ID
147,796
24.9%
28.4%
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA
13,173,266
23.8%
20.8%
Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN
1,285,058
18.4%
12.5%
Memphis, TN-MS-AR
1,337,311
16.5%
19.4%
Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, FL
6,126,441
24.2%
20.4%
Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis, WI
1,573,598
21.1%
17.4%
Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI
3,692,421
23.3%
21.7%
Mobile, AL
429,546
19.8%
–
Montgomery County-Bucks County-Chester County, PA
385,738
23.1%
20.5%
Nashville-Davidson–Murfreesboro–Franklin, TN
1,995,343
22.7%
17.3%
Nassau County-Suffolk County, NY
2,918,077
28.5%
19.6%
New Brunswick-Lakewood, NJ
2,488,909
26.6%
–
New Orleans-Metairie, LA
1,270,366
19.3%
18.4%
New York-Jersey City-White Plains, NY-NJ
12,412,533
25.6%
19.4%
Newark, NJ-PA
2,276,894
26.7%
20.1%
Ogden-Clearfield, UT
696,620
22.8%
22.4%
Oklahoma City, OK
1,428,709
18.6%
18.7%
Omaha-Council Bluffs, NE-IA
968,493
24.0%
19.2%
Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford, FL
2,677,687
27.0%
18.7%
Philadelphia, PA
2,177,393
19.8%
18.3%
Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, AZ
4,867,925
23.0%
21.5%
Pittsburgh, PA
2,367,293
19.3%
15.2%
Portland-South Portland, ME
552,089
27.0%
21.6%
Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro, OR-WA
2,516,230
21.1%
19.6%
Providence-Warwick, RI-MA
1,675,401
22.9%
20.2%
Provo-Orem, UT
674,967
31.6%
22.6%
Raleigh, NC
1,420,225
25.3%
23.9%
Rapid City, SD
139,328
20.4%
21.5%
Reno, NV
491,494
20.5%
17.2%
Richmond, VA
1,315,734
21.4%
19.1%
Rochester, MN
226,515
23.0%
25.8%
Rochester, NY
1,088,776
24.9%
22.7%
Salem, OR
434,065
17.8%
–
Salisbury, MD-DE
419,397
19.8%
16.1%
Salt Lake City, UT
1,259,517
23.8%
21.5%
San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX
2,566,683
24.1%
16.6%
San Juan-Carolina-Caguas, PR
2,078,738
27.5%
16.0%
Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, WA
3,101,902
25.4%
20.9%
Sioux City, IA-NE-SD
149,743
19.1%
17.2%
Sioux Falls, SD
277,458
26.7%
21.8%
Spokane-Spokane Valley, WA
587,266
21.7%
17.3%
Springfield, MA
697,960
22.3%
16.8%
St. Cloud, MN
199,687
23.9%
20.9%
St. Louis, MO-IL
2,818,267
21.1%
19.9%
Syracuse, NY
660,894
20.7%
–
Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL
3,183,385
23.6%
19.9%
Toledo, OH
645,819
18.9%
19.0%
Topeka, KS
232,747
15.7%
14.7%
Tulsa, OK
1,016,589
18.0%
13.9%
Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC
1,800,081
21.0%
20.2%
Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV
6,385,714
25.5%
23.5%
Waterloo-Cedar Falls, IA
168,266
19.2%
–
Watertown, SD
116,134
22.6%
–
Wichita, KS
647,921
19.4%
18.0%
Wilmington, DE-MD-NJ
739,317
22.0%
19.7%
Worcester, MA-CT
977,701
23.0%
23.1%
Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, OH-PA
539,686
20.3%
–
MEDIAN
21.7%
19.1%
(Image: Adobe Stock)
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