According to a recent study of 2018’s Fattest Cities in America, Arizona is pretty slim. With March being National Nutrition Month and Americans WalletHub released its report on fat cities.
The metro area including Phoenix, Scottsdale and Mesa is ranked 67th and Tucson is 87th out of the nations top 100 metro areas. Tucson is rated 96th for adults with the lowest high blood pressure.
Americans are the fattest people in the world, not just stereotypically but statistically too. In fact, as of 2017, almost 40% of the U.S. population aged 15 and older is obese. But such a finding should come as no surprise, considering the huge availability of fast-food and increasingly cheaper grocery items that have negatively altered our diets. Unfortunately, the extra pounds have inflated the costs of obesity-related medical treatment to nearly $316 billion a year and annual productivity losses due to work absenteeism to more than $8.6 billion.
But certain places are more responsible than others for tipping the scale in favor of bad health. To identify them, WalletHub compared 100 of the most populated U.S. metro areas across 18 key indicators of weight-related problems. Data set ranges from share of physically inactive adults to projected obesity rates by 2030 to healthy-food access.
In order to call attention to the communities where weight-related problems are most prevalent, WalletHub compared 100 of the most populated U.S. metro areas across 18 key metrics. The data set ranges from share of obese adults to share of overweight children to projected obesity rates by 2030.
| Fattest Cities in America | |||||
| 1 | Little Rock, AR | 11 | Columbia, SC | ||
| 2 | Shreveport, LA | 12 | Chattanooga, TN | ||
| 3 | McAllen, TX | 13 | Lafayette, LA | ||
| 4 | Memphis, TN | 14 | Greenville, SC | ||
| 5 | Mobile, AL | 15 | Louisville, KY | ||
| 6 | Knoxville, TN | 16 | Nashville, TN | ||
| 7 | Jackson, MS | 17 | Canton, OH | ||
| 8 | Birmingham, AL | 18 | Winston-Salem, NC | ||
| 9 | Baton Rouge, LA | 19 | Tulsa, OK | ||
| 10 | Lexington, KY | 20 | Greensboro, NC | ||
| 67 | Phoenix, Scottsdale, Mesa Metro Area | 84 | Tucson, AZ | ||
Key Stats
- The McAllen, Texas metro area has the highest share of obese adults, 44.90 percent, which is 2.5 times higher than in San Francisco, the metro area with the lowest at 17.85 percent.
- The McAllen, Texas metro area has the highest share of physically inactive adults, 36.9 percent, which is 2.7 times higher than in Provo, Utah the metro area with the lowest at 13.6 percent.
- The El Paso, Texas, metro area has the highest share of diabetic adults, 15.6 percent, which is 2.6 times higher than in Denver the metro area with the lowest at 6.00 percent.
- The Mobile, Alabama, metro area has the highest share of adults with high blood pressure, 41.2 percent, which is 1.9 times lower than in San Jose, California, the metro area with the lowest at 21.4 percent.
To read the full report and your city’s rank, visit this link.