11.17.2008 9:18 AM

The 20 Healthiest Places in America

Vermont and New Hampshire Communities Have More Healthy People
Also See America's 15 Least Healthy Places

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Photo: Rich Legg / IStock

By Dan Shapley

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently released a massive report that assesses the health of the U.S. population according to a number of measures — from leisure time physical activity to smoking rates and incidence of heart disease.

The part of the report getting the most press attention is how various communities see themselves. The survey, from 2006, asked people to assess their own health. This is the list of communities (listed by metropolitan statistical area, a Census designation that lumps some suburban areas in with their cities, lumps nearby cities together, or otherwise categorizes regions) that had the most people rate their health "good" or "great" (as opposed to "fair" or "poor"). The percentage of the population that rated their health "good" or "great" is noted along with each community.

Not surprisingly, many of the healthiest places are also among the 20 U.S. Communities That Exercise the Most. Those communities on both lists are highlighted in bold.

Burlington-South Burlington, Vt. (91.8)
Sioux Falls, S.D. (91.2)

Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, Minn.-Wis. (90.6)

Barre, Vt (90.5)
Lincoln, Neb. (90.5)
Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, Va.-N.C. (90.3)

Colorado Springs, Colo. (90.2)
Akron, Ohio (90.1)
Austin-Round Rock, Texas (89.9)
Bethesda-Gaithersburg-Frederick, Md. (89.8)
Cambridge-Newton-Framingham, Mass. (89.7)
Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, Conn. (89.6)
Manchester-Nashua, N.H. (89.4)
Des Moines-West Des Moines, Iowa (89.4)

Denver-Aurora, Colo. (89.3)
Concord, N.H. (89.2)
Rockingham County-Strafford County, N.H. (89.2)
Lebanon, N.H.-Vt. (89.2)
Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, Conn. (89.1)

Kalispell, Montana (89.0)

It is probably no coincidence that some of the communities known for their outdoors recreation — Burlington, Colorado Springs, St. Paul and others — are among the healthiest places to live. Getting outside and enjoying open spaces is one key ingredient to health. Neither is it surprising that many of these communities are actual cities, rather than suburbs, where driving is more common than walking.