Explore the best cities in the U.S. for living a healthy lifestyle. In this post we’ve ranked cities for their health and fitness resources.

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Can the city you live in affect how healthy you are in the long run?

Many people nowadays are trying to be healthier by making lifestyle changes such as cutting out sugars, buying milk alternatives, and working out more. Anybody can make these changes no matter where you live, but we wonder if it can be easier in some places than others.



While we can’t give professional health and fitness advice here at Life Storage, we would like to help people become more aware of ways to live a healthier lifestyle. And since many of our customers come to us during a move to a new city, we decided to take a deeper dive into where the best cities are for health nuts.



By collecting data from Yelp, we were able to rank the cities that had the most (and least) options for those who care about health. We decided to rank the cities based on the availability of a few things: nutritionists, gyms, hiking trails and parks, healthy eating options, vegan/vegetarian restaurants, farmer’s markets, and juice bars.



The Best and Worst Cities for Nutritionists

First, we decided to take a look at the best and worst cities for nutritionists. Los Angeles took the lead for the city with the most nutritionists with over 1,400 located within the city. New York follows Los Angeles with just over 1,100 nutritionists. San Diego, San Francisco, and Denver make up the rest of the top five, however, both LA and NYC have over double the number of nutritionists that San Diego, San Francisco, and Denver have.



Cities with the fewest amount of nutritionists included Memphis, Birmingham, Grand Rapids, New Orleans, and Hartford. With just 25 nutritionists located within Memphis, there aren’t many options for the 650,000 plus residents living in the area.



The Best and Worst Cities for Gym-Goers

An obvious essential for any health-nut is to have a gym membership. In our research, we also included the options of fitness studios and other class-based memberships, as we understand that some people prefer different types of fitness other than going to the gym.



New York City has the most amount of gyms available with over 2,100 within the city. Los Angeles comes next, with over 1,600 gyms available. Chicago, Philadelphia, and Atlanta follow Los Angeles with 909, 836, and 795 gyms, respectively. Hartford had the least amount of gyms with just 67 located in the city. Providence, Grand Rapids, Rochester, and Birmingham also have a low amount of gyms located in the city.



The Best and Worst Cities for Hiking and Parks

Another popular fitness option is to spend time outdoors in parks and hiking trails. Once again, Los Angeles and New York City take the top spots for another fitness category. Chicago, Seattle, and San Jose are not far behind, however – each city has around 1,000 different hiking trails and parks to choose from. Grand Rapids has the least amount of hiking trails and parks with just 62 parks and trails to go to. Providence has just one more option, and are followed by Birmingham, Hartford, and Memphis, yet again.

The Best and Worst Cities for Healthy Eating

To truly be a health nut, it’s important that you accompany physical activity with healthy eating. For the city with the most healthy eating options, New York City takes the (vegan and gluten-free) cake. Hartford has the fewest amount of healthy eating options with just 52 different options available. For vegans and vegetarians, New York City also has the most amount of restaurant options, while Birmingham has the fewest.

Farmers markets are also a popular way to get locally-sourced and organic foods. Los Angeles has the most options for farmers markets with 325 different markets. Providence has the fewest farmers markets with just 13. For juice bars, New York City has the most with almost 1,500 juice bars while Hartford only has 16.

Interactive Map

If your city didn’t rank at the top or bottom for any of these categories, not to worry! You can see how it stacks up against the competition in the map below. Just click on your location and check out the numbers for your city.

Wondering how your city stacks up in these categories? Check out the chart below!

Even if you aren’t a certified health nut, you can still take advantage of the options in your city to become more active and eat healthier. If you don’t have space in your home to hold things like bikes, hiking shoes, and roller blades, you can always count on Life Storage to give you the space you need.