Chicago, Illinois Was Just Named One Of The Healthiest Cities To Live In 2020
By Elizabeth Crozier|Published February 23, 2020
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Elizabeth Crozier
Author
An Illinois transplant who grew up and went to school in Indiana for 22 years, Elizabeth holds a BFA in creative writing and has enjoyed traveling across the country and parts of Europe. She has visited half of the states, as well as parts of Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean, and regularly travels home to the Hoosier State to see friends and family. With more than five years of writing experience, Elizabeth’s articles have been featured on several websites, and her poetry and short stories have been published in multiple literary journals.
Believe it or not, there’s a healthy city in Illinois, and it’s Chicago. The Windy City is known for much, but being healthy isn’t typically one of them. Scroll on to find out how it got ranked so high.
When it comes to Chicago's overall ranking, the city is 10 out of 170 cities that were contrasted and compared based on elements like healthcare costs, access to healthy food, and fitness availability.
Chicago's best feature is certainly its green space, which is why it ranks number 11 overall out of the more than 170 cities. The Windy City's motto is even "city in a garden."
This healthy city also ranks high when it comes to food. Chicago is 11th when it comes to cities that offer ever-expanding access to nutritional food and meals.
From Chicago Diner to True Food Kitchen, the city has opened new health restaurants while keeping its tried and true ones, and you can find them in the city and suburbs.
The city is also known for its various places to get active and fit. Though it ranks 20 overall out of all the cities that were ranked, it is number four in running trails per capita.
The final metric was healthcare costs for which Chicago ranks number 66. This means it's certainly not the cheapest place to receive care, but it is also not as expensive as cities like New York and Los Angeles.