Northwest metro areas at bottom of “fattest cities” list
A new analysis of the 100 most populated U.S. metro areas ranked the Portland-Vancouver area as the 99th fattest, followed by the Seattle-Tacoma area.
The fattest city, according to the WalletHub analysis, is Jackson, Miss.
The analysis looked at three areas: obesity and overweight, weight-related health problems and healthy environment.
The Portland-Vancouver-Hillsboro metro area ranked 88th in the obesity and overweight category, 86th for weight-related problems and 100th in healthy environment.
For comparison, Jackson ranked second, first and 22nd, respectively.
Here’s a list of the top 10 fattest cities:
1. Jackson, Miss.
2. Memphis, Tenn.
3. Little Rock, Ark.
4. McAllen, Texas
5. Shreveport, La.
6. Chattanooga, Tenn.
7. Mobile, Ala.
8. Lafayette, La.
9. Winston-Salem, N.C.
10. Knoxville, Tenn.
And the bottom 10 of the fattest cities list:
91. Sacramento, Calif.
92. San Jose, Calif.
93. San Francisco.
94. Honolulu
95. Boston
96. Colorado Springs, Colo.
97. Denver
98. Minneapolis
99. Portland
100. Seattle
The Spokane-Spokane Valley metro area ranked No. 64.
Some other fun facts from the analysis:
- San Francisco has the lowest share of obese adults (17.9 percent). McAllen, Texas has the highest (44.9 percent).
- McAllen also has the highest share of physically inactive adults (36.9 percent).
- Jackson, Miss. has the highest share of diabetic adults: 15.1 percent.
Marissa Harshman
I'm the health reporter for The Columbian newspaper in Vancouver, Wash. I started at The Columbian -- my hometown newspaper -- in September 2009. Reach me at marissa.harshman@columbian.com or 360-735-4546.