Boston Ranked Sixth-Thinnest City in America

Esplanade photo by Samantha Carey

Make room in the trophy case, because Boston’s health accolades just keep rolling in. The latest? WalletHub ranked Boston America’s sixth-thinnest metropolitan area.

The study’s metrics went way beyond percentage of obese and overweight residents. It also looked at physical inactivity, high cholesterol, fruit and vegetable consumption, diabetes, high blood pressure, and childhood and teen obesity in 100 metropolitan areas. The Boston area—which, for the purposes of the study, encompassed Boston Proper, Cambridge, Newton, and parts of New Hampshire—was solid across all 14 categories.

We came in 87th (that’s a good thing) in the percentage of obese adults category, a metric we consistently place well in across studies. We were also 89th in percentage of adults with high cholesterol and diabetes, and in adults eating fewer than one serving of fruit or vegetables per day.

Our worst category? Percentage of overweight children, where we came in 35th. Interestingly, however, that number drops way down to 74th for overweight teens.

The five metropolitan areas deemed thinner than Boston were Honolulu, Hawaii; Reno, Nevada; Boise, Idaho; Las Vegas, Nevada; and Sacramento, California.

Watch your backs, you five. Boston’s competitiveness ranks with the best of ’em.