Arlington, Virginia, tops America’s fittest cities

Arlington, Virginia, is the fittest city in the country, according to the newly released 2018 American Fitness Index.

The Washington, D.C., neighbor topped the American College of Sports Medicine’s annual rankings of America’s 100 major cities by fitness.

Minneapolis, Minnesota, came in second, followed by Washington, D.C., in third, Madison, Wisconsin, fourth and Portland, Oregon, wrapping up the top five.

The ranking factors in, among other things, fitness, nutrition, chronic disease, smoking, mental health, access to parks and public transportation.

For the first time in the ranking’s 11-year history, it ranked the countries 100 largest cities rather than the 50 largest metropolitan areas.

The Washington, D.C., metro area, which include Arlington and nearby Alexandria, Virginia, had topped the list in 2014-16, but slipped to second in the 2017 rankings behind the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area.

At the bottom of the 100 ranked cities were Oklahoma City. The rest of the bottom five were Indianapolis, Louisville, Kentucky; Detroit; and Toledo, Ohio.