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Is Your City Killing You?
Page 80 of the January/February 2009 Men's Health magazine has their annual Metrogrades - Ranking America's Cities The Best and Worst Cities for Men in 2009. According to the article the top five are as follows:
- Madison, WI
- St. Paul, MN
- Salt Lake City, UT
- Seattle, WA
- Aurora, CO
They based their statistical analysis on 30 factors to come up with a three pointed average health quotient. The first factor they used was from health data by zip code. The second factor was based on Quality of life which included crime rates, air quality, and job growth. The third factor was based on city fitness, which I have no idea how this was approached...maybe number of gym memberships or something.
Anyway the worst five are as follows...
96. Birmingham, AL
97. St. Petersburg, FL
98. Las Vegas, NV
99. St. Louis , MO
100. Charleston, WV
 Now in my opinion, I think their statistics were a little off when considering St. Petersburg. I believe the data may have been skewed abnormally in the health factor aspect. There are a ton of people over the age of 65 that live down there and of course the government health records are going to show more deaths by heart attack and diabetes in a place that is mainly populated with people that already have the predisposition for these problems.
I'm not sure what the problem is in St. Louis, but here in Birmingham, we have an air quality problem since the mountains retain the ozone from vehicles and factories. Las Vegas...crime rate maybe, and then again it could be the heat or losing your life savings in a bad game of craps. Charleston, WV is pretty obvious...Hello! Coal mines are a major industry there.
See where your city rates; go to their website and check out the interactive map here.
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