America's 10 Most, Least Fit Cities

Arlington is tops among big cities, while Oklahoma City is last
Posted Jul 18, 2026 5:30 AM CDT
America's 10 Fittest Cities
Arlington, Virginia, provides residents with plenty of outdoor activities.   (Getty/xbrchx)

Arlington, Virginia, just extended its fitness winning streak to nine years. The DC suburb again tops the American College of Sports Medicine's American Fitness Index, which ranks the country's 100 largest cities using 35 indicators, from exercise habits and chronic disease to parks, food insecurity, and air quality. In particular, top-performing cities tend to provide excellent access to parks and walking trails, Dr. Stella Volpe of the ACSM tells WTOP. The best and worst:

10 fittest cities:

  1. Arlington, Virginia
  2. Washington, DC
  3. Minneapolis
  4. Seattle
  5. Denver
  6. San Francisco
  7. Irvine, California
  8. Atlanta
  9. Madison, Wisconsin
  10. Boston

The bottom 10:

  1. Tulsa, Oklahoma
  2. Detroit
  3. Wichita, Kansas
  4. Louisville, Kentucky
  5. Bakersfield, California
  6. Lubbock, Texas
  7. Indianapolis
  8. Port St. Lucie, Florida
  9. Memphis, Tennessee
  10. Oklahoma City
See the full rankings and more specifics on why each city ranked where it did.

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