Story Highlights Naples-Immokalee-Marco Island at or near top of list across all wellbeing elements

Gulfport-Biloxi-Pascagoula residents had the lowest wellbeing

Boulder, Colorado, leads nation in physical wellbeing

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- For the fourth straight year, the Naples-Immokalee-Marco Island, Florida, metro area had the highest wellbeing across 156 U.S. communities, based on data collected in 2017 and 2018 as part of the Gallup National Health and Well-Being Index. Salinas, California; Boulder, Colorado; Santa Rosa, California; and Ann Arbor, Michigan round out the top five metro areas.

Top 15 Cities, Overall Wellbeing in 2017-2018 Out of 156 Reportable Metropolitan Statistical Areas Well-Being Index Score Naples-Immokalee-Marco Island, FL 65.7 Salinas, CA 64.6 Boulder, CO 64.5 Santa Rosa, CA 64.2 Ann Arbor, MI 64.2 Cape Coral-Fort Myers, FL 63.8 Fort Collins, CO 63.8 Lancaster, PA 63.7 North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton, FL 63.6 Asheville, NC 63.6 Port St. Lucie, FL 63.4 Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, CA 63.4 Provo-Orem, UT 63.3 San Diego-Carlsbad, CA 63.3 Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO 63.2 Gallup National Health and Well-Being Index

Naples area ascended to the top spot in 2014-2015 and has since remained there. This marks the first time in 11 years of annual Well-Being Index reporting that the same city has topped the rankings four times in a row.

The Gallup National Health and Well-Being Index is calculated on a scale of 0 to 100, where 0 represents the lowest possible wellbeing and 100 represents the highest possible wellbeing. The Well-Being Index score for the U.S. and for each metro area is based on scores within each of the five essential elements of wellbeing:

Career: liking what you do each day and being motivated to achieve your goals

liking what you do each day and being motivated to achieve your goals Social: having supportive relationships and love in your life

having supportive relationships and love in your life Financial: managing your economic life to reduce stress and increase security

managing your economic life to reduce stress and increase security Community: liking where you live, feeling safe and having pride in your community

liking where you live, feeling safe and having pride in your community Physical: having good health and enough energy to get things done daily

In most cases, a difference of 1.0 to 2.0 points in the Well-Being Index score of any two areas represents a statistically significant gap and consists of meaningful differences in at least some of the five elements of wellbeing. Each city reported is represented as the broader metropolitan statistical area as defined by the federal government.

The Well-Being Index score for the Naples metro area, though remaining the highest in the U.S., has slipped from 67.6 for 2016-2017 to 65.7 in 2017-2018, a drop that parallels a significant two year decline in wellbeing nationally.

Gallup tracks wellbeing in metro areas using two-year rolling averages, allowing for larger sample sizes that improve the statistical accuracy of the data and allow more areas to be reported each year. For a full listing of all reportable metros, see the bottom of this article.

Each of the top five cities for 2017-2018 has frequented the list of the top 15 wellbeing cities numerous times in prior years.

Gulfport-Biloxi-Pascagoula Has Lowest Wellbeing in U.S. for First Time

The Gulfport-Biloxi-Pascagoula metro -- which held the third-lowest ranking in 2016-2017 -- had the lowest overall wellbeing nationally for the first time in 2017-2018, supplanting Fort Smith, Arkansas-Oklahoma and Canton-Massillon, Ohio, neither of which reached the minimum number of completed surveys required for reporting this period. Scranton--Wilkes-Barre--Hazleton, Pennsylvania was the second lowest metro, its lowest rank ever measured, followed by Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, Ohio-Pennsylvania. The South Bend, Indiana-Michigan metro was among the lowest 15 cities for the second straight year.

Lowest 15 Cities, Overall Wellbeing in 2017-2018 Out of 156 Reportable Metropolitan Statistical Areas Well-Being Index Score Gulfport-Biloxi-Pascagoula, MS 57.4 Scranton--Wilkes-Barre--Hazleton, PA 57.9 Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, OH-PA 58.1 Tulsa, OK 58.1 Rockford, IL 58.3 Bakersfield, CA 58.5 Memphis, TN-MS-AR 58.5 Springfield, MA 58.6 Huntington-Ashland, WV-KY-OH 58.6 Toledo, OH 58.9 New Orleans-Metairie, LA 58.9 Salem, OR 59.1 Columbia, SC 59.2 South Bend-Mishawaka, IN-MI 59.3 Tallahassee, FL 59.3 Gallup National Health and Well-Being Index

Highest, Lowest Wellbeing Cities Reflect State Wellbeing Patterns

Nationally, the U.S. map of highest and lowest wellbeing cities generally reflects the pattern found across states, with the lowest wellbeing metro areas found primarily in the South and then winding north up through the industrial Midwest. The highest wellbeing cities are scattered primarily across the eastern seaboard as well as the Mountain West and West.

Naples Metro Area Among Nation's Best in Most Elements

The Naples metro area was among the top two metros across all elements except physical wellbeing, thus continuing to demonstrate the high levels of holistic wellbeing that has previously characterized it.

Highlights for top-ranking cities in other areas of wellbeing in 2017-2018 include:

Boulder, a longtime pacesetter nationally in physical wellbeing , was the top U.S. city for the second year in a row for this element. The state of California provided the second- and third-ranked metros: Salinas and Santa Rosa.

, was the top U.S. city for the second year in a row for this element. The state of California provided the second- and third-ranked metros: Salinas and Santa Rosa. McAllen-Edinburg-Mission topped the nation in career wellbeing , marking the fourth year in a row that the city has been among the highest five nationally.

, marking the fourth year in a row that the city has been among the highest five nationally. Naples residents have the highest social wellbeing, edging out Montgomery, Alabama and fellow Floridian city , Ocala.

After Naples, the top metro areas in financial wellbeing are Ann Arbor, Michigan; and San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California.

are Ann Arbor, Michigan; and San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, California. Community wellbeing is highest in the Naples, Asheville, North Carolina and Fort Collins, Colorado metros.

Cities With Highest and Lowest Wellbeing Scores in Each Element Highest Wellbeing Cities Lowest Wellbeing Cities Career: McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX Syracuse, NY Naples-Immokalee-Marco Isl., FL Gulfport-Biloxi-Pascagoula, MS Salinas, CA Providence-Warwick, RI-MA Social: Naples-Immokalee-Marco Isl., FL Tulsa, OK Montgomery, AL Toledo, OH Ocala, FL Springfield, MO Financial: Naples-Immokalee-Marco Isl., FL Gulfport-Biloxi-Pascagoula, MS Ann Arbor, MI New Orleans-Metairie, LA San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA Mobile, AL Community: Naples-Immokalee-Marco Isl., FL Rockford, IL Asheville, NC Scranton--Wilkes-Barre--Hazleton, PA Fort Collins, CO Memphis, TN-MS-AR Physical: Boulder, CO Gulfport-Biloxi-Pascagoula, MS Salinas, CA Tulsa, OK Santa Rosa, CA Rockford, IL Gallup National Health and Well-Being Index

The Gulfport-Biloxi-Pascagoula metro was among the lowest three areas for career, financial and physical wellbeing, while Tulsa (social and physical) and Rockford (community and physical) were each among the lowest three in two areas of wellbeing. New Orleans-Metairie, Louisiana, and Mobile, Alabama joined Gulfport with the lowest financial wellbeing.

Implications

American cities are not immune to the significant decline in wellbeing that has occurred nationally across the last two years. Even Naples, which has topped the nation in wellbeing four years running, is susceptible to these broader trends, dropping nearly two points in its Well-Being Index score since last year's reporting period. The manifestation of national trends locally is not insignificant; U.S. cities are at the front lines of American wellbeing and in many ways provide the best environments to improve it. City leaders are often able to create and sustain a culture of wellbeing in ways that leaders of more geographically diverse states cannot. This is critical, as wellbeing can have a very real effect on a wide variety of outcomes for a city. For example, cities with low wellbeing, as a whole, have residents with significantly higher obesity rates and double the heart attack incidence, thus incurring substantially higher healthcare costs.

As city leaders think about strategies to improve residents' lives, they should simultaneously consider recruiting local employers as a key means of driving change, as a critical component to creating and maintaining high wellbeing in cities is an abundance of good jobs and workplaces with engaging managers. Globally, individuals who report that now is a "good time" to find a job have substantially higher wellbeing than those who do not, and those who are employed full time for an employer evaluate their lives much better than others in the workforce do. The incentive for employers to care about wellbeing is substantial, as high-wellbeing cities have workers who suffer much lower rates of unplanned absenteeism due to poor heath coupled with higher overall performance.

Learn more about how the Gallup National Health and Well-Being Index works.