Pines among healthiest cities in Florida, study says. What makes us stand out?
Pembroke Pines — the self-acclaimed city of health and wellness — is measuring up nationwide, a new study shows.
The southwest Broward city landed in the top 40th percentile of America’s healthiest cities, according to WalletHub’s latest research.
The report — released on March 30 by the Miami-based personal finance company — compared 182 cities nationwide in four “key dimensions” that WalletHub says have major sway on personal health: health care, food, fitness and green space.
How did Pembroke Pines make out? The city ranked 74th across the United States and was labeled the sixth best of the 11 Florida cities the study assessed.
Its recent grade could mark a shift in what becomes of the city’s branding, a recent topic of conversation among some city officials who believe a “family friendly” tagline would suit Pines better.
To rate the city, WalletHub’s four categories were split into 41 metrics with differing weights, graded on a 100-point scale and averaged to calculate the score.
Health care, a 25-point category, averaged the city’s premature death rate, residents’ self-reported mental and physical health status, availability of hospital beds, the costs of medicine and routine medical visits and more.
Food, also worth 25 points, assessed qualities such as dietitians and nutritionists per capita, number of obese residents, access to farmers’ markets, local Google searches for “healthy eating,” and residents’ fruit and vegetable consumption.
Fitness — the 25-point dimension Pines ranked highest in — calculated the number of adults who exercised, availability of gyms, weight loss centers and trainers, the average cost of a membership and how many intramural leagues the city hosts.
Green space, the 25-point category the city fared worst in, crunched parkland acreage and the quality of local parks, number of hiking trails, Pines’ walk and bike scores, and the percentage of residents with access to open space for physical activity.
Pembroke Pines’ total score was 47.30 out of 100. The city ranked 68th in health care, 91st in food, 46th in fitness and 100th in green space.
If Pines didn’t measure up to your standards, Fort Lauderdale and Miami are less than an hour’s drive away and fared significantly better, taking the 56th and 46th spots, respectively, on WalletHub’s list.
St. Petersburg was sandwiched between the metropolises at 53.
Die-hard health and wellness folks will want to consider Orlando (24) and Tampa (36), which topped all other Florida cities, and avoid Jacksonville (77), Tallahassee (118), Hialeah (134), Port St. Lucie (141), Cape Coral (150).
Unfortunately, WalletHub’s top three choices — San Francisco, San Diego and Seattle — all landed roughly 3,000 miles away from the Sunshine State.
