DENVER – We know Colorado residents love to get out and enjoy the great outdoors and data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention back up the idea that the state’s residents are among some of the most physically active in the country.
The CDC’s 500 Cities project, which tracks health-related data at the city level, shows Boulder, Centennial and Fort Collins are among the top five cities in the country with the lowest percentage of residents who don’t get any kind of physical activity during their free time.
Boulder in particular has the lowest percentage nationwide at 10.8 percent. That means 89.1 percent of all adults in Boulder get some kind of exercise outside of work or school.
The dataset doesn’t include any information on how much activity people are getting on average, so it’s hard to say whether Boulder residents actually spend more time being active. All the data tell us is that the city’s inhabitants as a whole are more likely to spend their free time doing something physically active.
Overall, Western states tend to have the lowest rates of inactivity, with Colorado, Washington and California making up eight of the top 10 cities with the lowest percentages.
Here’s how the rest of Colorado fares (Percentage of adults with no leisure-time physical activity in parentheses):
1. Boulder (10.8%)
2. Centennial (12.6%)
3. Fort Collins (13.6%)
4. Arvada (14.9%)
5. Longmont (14.9%)
6. Loveland (15.6%)
7. Westminster (15.7%)
8. Lakewood (16%)
9. Denver (16.1%)
10. Colorado Springs (16.9%)
11. Thornton (17.4%)
12. Aurora (19.5%)
13. Greeley (21.3%)
14. Pueblo (24.4%)
For more information, log on to cdc.gov/500cities.
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