Are These Really New York State’s Healthiest Cities?

Do you consider yourself healthy? Sometimes it can depend where you live. Does the town or city you live in have easy access to nutritious food and recreational facilities? Is healthcare affordable and are the parks well taken care of? While maintaining a healthy diet and exercising on your own is important, areas that put priority on well being will tend to have healthier populations.

Where are New York's Healthiest Places? 

WalletHub analyzed the data from across a number of cities using four key dimensions: 1) Health Care 2) Food 3) Fitness and 4) Green Space. This was broken down even further, evaluating those four dimensions using 43 relevant metrics. Some of the results may surprise you. According to WalletHub, New York City was 17th in the nation overall, and 2nd in the health care category.

Rochester was 43rd. Yonkers was 52nd, and Buffalo 65th.

How Complete is This List? 

Now when it comes to the least healthiest city that WalletHub rated, Brownsville, Texas was dead last at 182nd. They rated right below Gulfport, Mississippi. Something to consider is that WalletHub compared only the top 182 of the most populated U.S. cities. If you expanded the list, you'd probably see some more towns representing the Hudson Valley.

Other Numbers

The are still a lot of other factors to consider when talking about overall health. Americans have been drinking more and more in recent years. A struggling economy, high cost of living, and then the COVID-19 pandemic have all led to more drinking and rising alcohol sales across the board. But what parts of the country are drinking the most? What states seem to drink continuously? A new study examined some of the numbers, and it looks like New Yorkers really like to drink - a lot.

 A survey of 3,255 respondents over 21 by American Addiction Centers says that 19% of Americans start drinking when they're 21, and continue to do so the remainder of their lives without taking a prolonged break. But when you look at New York's numbers, the results are a bit higher. The study says that 27% of New Yorkers (about 1 in 4) never take a break from the booze from the time they're of legal age.

This definitely puts us toward the top of the list. Minnesota had the highest number of prolonged drinkers, at 32%. Delaware was lowest at 7%.