Three Washington cities just ranked among the most physically active in the US

Washington State is back in the news this week for something great! It turns out our state likes to move and keep things active. The US Chamber of Commerce just released an analysis of physical activity in the US and found that Washington is one of the nation’s most active states.

First off, how was this ranking determined? The Chamber used data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s CDC Places data. “To determine the most physically active locations, researchers calculated the share of adults who self-reported engaging in leisure-time physical activity such as running, calisthenics, golf, gardening, or walking for exercise.”

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Their interest in creating this ranking and analyzing the data had to do with the decrease in physical activity that happened during the pandemic. Further, how physical activity has evolved as COVID-19 restrictions have begun to lift across the nation.

With all that in mind, Washington did pretty dang well. Bellevue, WA ranked number one for most physically active small cities, Vancouver, WA number ten for midsize cities. Drumroll please because Seattle ranked as the most physically active large city in the nation!

For more perspective on how Seattle snagged that spot, here are some stats.

• Share of adults who are physically active: 84.7%
• Share of adults who are obese: 22.1%
• Share of adults with high cholesterol: 27.3%
• Share of adults with diabetes: 7.4%
• Share of adults with depression: 23.5%

If you’ve needed some encouragement to get active this spring, let this be it. You can check out the full ranking at the US Chamber of Commerce’s website.