Exit133

July 9, 2013 · Exit133

Tacoma: One of America's Fittest Cities

We like to see Tacoma appear on “top 10” lists getting credit for being a great place in a variety of ways - past honors have included most romantic city, gayest city, top city for millenials...

The latest list for Tacoma is one we particularly like for purely personal reasons: Tacoma was named number nine on a list of the top 10 “Facebook’s Fittest Cities.”

Now there are some caveats here - the rankings come from Facebook user data fitness-related status updates, gym check-ins, use of fitness apps, and fitness-related life events added to a person’s timeline. The data used was collected between January 1 and March 31, of 2013, from cities with at least 200,000 Facebook users. 

With that in mind, here are the 10 fittest cities: 

  1. Virginia Beach, Virginia
  2. Colorado Springs, Colorado
  3. Austin, Texas
  4. San Antonio, Texas
  5. Livingston, New Jersey
  6. Portland, Oregon
  7. El Paso, Texas
  8. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
  9. Tacoma, Washington
  10. Albuquerque, New Mexico

We’re thinking we can take Oklahoma City - who’s with us?

Filed under: Sports, Awards & Recognition

3 comments

  • Jesse July 9, 2013

    Oklahoma City = fried veggies

  • Xeno July 10, 2013

    Not to burst bubbles but Oklahoma City is notoriously one of the most unfit cities. I think the parameters of this survey may be misleading since they include keywords that could relate to how fat Oklahoma is ... Also Tacoma just recently became 200,000k and I figure there is some spillage from neighboring cities unless 100% of Tacomans are on Facebook.

  • City of Tacoma July 11, 2013

    @Xeno The methodology behind the study didn't necessarily reflect the physiological breakdown of residents of these cities; it just reflected the prevalence of posts related to fitness. Tacoma has a unique advantage of having so much available in terms of outdoor activities and parks, so it's not a stretch to imagine that our residents frequently post about those things. Regardless, it's still a great sign of how we as a city get out and actively enjoy what we have. We also just cleared the 200,000 mark a few weeks ago. At the time of this survey, you are likely correct that they took some information from the surrounding area. That's okay; we love our neighbors too!