Arlington is once again the fittest city in the U.S., according to researchers with the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) and Elevance Health Foundation. It’s a title the county has held for eight years running.
The cities occupying the other top three spots are also repeats from last year: Washington, D.C., was again ranked No. 2, Seattle took third and San Francisco held strong in fourth.
One notable change for Arlington this time around is that the county earned the top spot in both of the main categories in the 18th annual American Fitness Index, released July 22. The index evaluates the nation’s 100 largest cities using 35 indicators across two overarching categories: personal health and community/environment.
Whereas Arlington came in fourth for personal health in 2024, improved health behaviors and health outcomes contributed to its rise in the rankings this year. Higher numbers of county residents reported meeting aerobic activity guidelines (65.7%), meeting aerobic and strength activity guidelines (33.4%), bicycling or walking to work (6%), and using public transportation (16.9%). There were also decreases in rates of asthma (6.2%), heart disease (1.2%) and diabetes (6.3%).
Arlington held fast to its No. 1 spot in the community and environment category, which looks at food security, walkability and parks. This year, ACSM added trail miles and splashpads to its built environment indicators, and updated its metrics on tennis courts to include pickleball and dual-use courts.
“Ideas are brought to our committee,” says Stella Volpe, chair of the Fitness Index Advisory Board and ACSM past president. “This year, we added those three knowing that the popularity of [pickleball has grown] and the importance of things like trails should be considered in our indicators.”
She attributes Arlington’s continued dominance in the rankings to consistency in areas such as walkability, safety and public access to recreational facilities. Though the county did not make the top 10 for trail miles or splashpads, it came in sixth for tennis, pickleball and dual-use courts.
“We know it’s a great, walkable community,” Volpe says. “We know it’s a fairly safe community and we know that the city planners and [county board] have the ability to invest and have the resources to maintain what you already have.”
In the area of personal health, Arlington ranked highest in several indicators, earning an overall health score of 88, compared a nationwide average of 50.5. Arlington had the highest percentage residents getting more than seven hours of sleep per night (76.4%) and the lowest percentage of smokers (3.3%). It’s also home to the greatest share of residents in excellent or very good health (67.2%).
Neighboring Washington, D.C., earned the highest marks for the percentage of residents who eat two or more fruits per day (37.9%).
Nationwide, the index found that more Americans are meeting aerobic activity guidelines—59.5% in 2025, compared with 50.9% in 2024. Many cities saw an increase in both aerobic and strength activity, with 89 of the 100 cities averaging a 7.6% increase. Those guidelines call for 30 minutes of moderate aerobic activity five days a week or 20 minutes of vigorous activity three days a week, plus strength training at least two days a week.
Any activity helps, Volpe says. “It doesn’t take people running marathons to make them active or to make them healthy. Research shows that if people accumulate activity throughout the day, including things like walking, gardening, going up and down the stairs in their house…those things add up more than people actually realize. Any activity is always better than none.”
Not all the news from the latest index is good. Nationwide, several indicators trended lower this time around, including air quality, although the report notes that last year’s Canadian wildfires had a significant—and hopefully short-lived—impact.
Scores indicating access to healthy food were also troubling, with 99 of the 100 cities in the study reporting an increase in food insecurity. Volpe says the change may stem, in part, from the sunsetting of pandemic-era programs such as the Child Tax Credit. But she’s concerned that massive cuts to social services such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) might worsen the problem in the months ahead. The Urban Institute estimates that 22.3 million families could lose some or all of their benefits.
“That’s worrying me because we [already] went up maybe 2% in food insecurity,” Volpe says, “and that was pretty significant. In some of these cities, we have food deserts and so their food insecurity may have gotten a bit worse.”